A Collaborative Working Project between Boehringer Ingelheim Limited and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to establish a National Consensus led standardisation of the diagnostic and clinical management of L-LCNEC patients

A Collaborative Working Project between Boehringer Ingelheim Limited and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to establish a standardised diagnostic and treatment pathway that will enable systemic change for the benefit of patients with Large Cell Neuroendocrine of the Lung, (L-LCNEC). The initial phase of the project is to establish an expert-led consensus that will outline the protocol to diagnose L-LCNEC and agree treatment guidelines, improving diagnosis timelines and standardise access to treatment. The final phase of the project will be to enable data inclusion to the National Lung Cancer Audit database, subsequently providing improved understanding of treatment at a population level.

L-LCNEC is a rare lung cancer subtype for which progress in management has fallen behind the significant developments seen in other types of lung cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)1,2. Its diagnostic challenges have presented a substantial problem to pathologists over the years, creating a clinical context where there is little confidence that L-LCNEC is being consistently labelled as the same disease3. Diagnostic uncertainty may also likely underestimate the true incidence of L-LCNEC cases and unknown disparities in L-LCNEC between early and advanced disease may exist 3.

The project aims to operationalise in November 2024 and is anticipated to run for 30 months.

Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd is pleased to collaborate with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to establish a standardised diagnostic and treatment pathway that will aim to bring system change for the benefit of patients with L-LCNEC.

You can find out more about the project in this video.

References

  1. Carlisle JW, Ramalingam SS. A banner year for immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 2019;16:79–80. doi: 10.1038/s41571-018-0138-4;
  2. Travis WD, Linnoila RI, Tsokos MG, Hitchcock CL, Cutler GB, Jr, Nieman, et al. Neuroendocrine tumors of the lung with proposed criteria for large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. An ultrastructural, immunohistochemical, and flow cytometric study of 35; Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 1991;15:529–553;
  3. Lindsay et al., Large cell neuroendocrine Lung Carcinoma British Journal of Cancer, Nature Portfolio, 2021, 125(9):1210-1216 

NP-GB-105262   November 2024

Last updated: May 2025

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