Wong CC, Baum J, Silvestro A, et al. - Given that a significant reduction in lung cancer incidence and mortality in relation to inhibition of the interleukin (IL)-1β inflammatory pathway by canakinumab has been demonstrated in the Canakinumab Anti-inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study (CANTOS), researchers focused on molecular characterization of patients from CANTOS who developed lung cancer during the study. They conducted circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and soluble inflammatory biomarker analysis. They noted that in patients with (n = 29) vs without (n = 38) detectable COSMIC ctDNA mutations at baseline, the median time to lung cancer diagnosis was found to be 407 days vs 837 days (p = 0.011). A trend toward a shorter time to lung cancer diagnosis was observed for patients with the highest concentration of baseline C-reactive protein or IL-6, both downstream of IL-1β signaling. These observations offer further evidence that IL-1β-mediated pro-tumor inflammation plays a crucial role in lung cancer. These data also indicate that delaying disease progression of diverse molecular subtypes of lung cancer may partially mediate the effect of canakinumab.