Patients with treatment-naive HER2-mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received zongertinib (Hernexeos; Boehringer Ingelheim) reported improvements in physical functioning within 1 week of starting therapy, according to patient-reported outcome (PRO) data from the phase 1b Beamion LUNG-1 trial (NCT04886804).1,2 Presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, improvements in physical functioning and NSCLC-related symptoms were observed to be sustained over time, and patients reported a low overall adverse effect (AE) burden.2
Beamion LUNG-1 is an open-label, multicenter, multicohort phase 1a/1b study, and this analysis included 71 adult patients unresectable or metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC harboring HER2 tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) mutations who had not received systemic therapy for advanced disease and who were treated with zongertinib 120 mg once daily.1,3-5
In a news release, Joshua K. Sabari, MD, of NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, noted that, for this population, understanding how treatment affects how patients “feel and function in daily life” is especially important, and that the findings further support zongertinib’s use in the first-line setting.2
Measuring the Patient Experience and AEs
In this analysis, the investigators assessed 4 PRO domains using validated instruments: physical functioning, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) physical functioning scale, scored 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better functioning; disease-related symptoms, the NSCLC Symptom Assessment Questionnaire (NSCLC-SAQ), a 7-item measure of cough, pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and appetite, with total scores ranging from 0 to 20 and lower scores indicating fewer symptoms; and both overall AE burden and symptomatic AEs.1,2
The NSCLC-SAQ total score and EORTC QLQ-C30 physical functioning score are also secondary end points in the ongoing randomized phase 3 Beamion LUNG-2 trial (NCT06151574)6, which compares first-line zongertinib with standard treatment.
Physical functioning, as measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30, improved from baseline within the first week of treatment, and disease-related symptoms, as measured by the NSCLC-SAQ total score, also improved from baseline. Both improvements were sustained over the course of treatment.1,2
Tolerability findings were consistent with the drug’s selective mechanism. Patients reported a low overall AE burden on the EORTC IL46/Q168, and most PRO-CTCAE–assessed symptomatic AEs were mild and in line with zongertinib’s published safety data. Symptomatic AE Incidence was considered low.1,2
