Erlotinib nearly triples progression-free survival compared with standard chemo in patients with the most common form of lung cancer
The targeted drug erlotinib nearly triples progression-free survival (PFS), and is better tolerated, compared with standard chemotherapy as the initial treatment for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours harbour epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. The results suggest that erlotinib should be one of the first-line treatments now considered for advanced NSCLC in patients with activating EGFR mutations.
Despite progress in recent years, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Increasingly, research has focused on identifying potential biomarkers to prolong survival from new targeted drugs and optimise treatment decisions for individual patients. To date, the most promising of these markers is EGFR mutation status. Previous studies have shown that NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations respond well to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapies such as erlotinib.
The OPTIMAL study (1) is the first phase 3 trial to examine whether erlotinib has comparable efficacy and safety to chemotherapy in patients whose lung cancer harbours EGFR mutations. 165 patients were recruited from 22 centres across China and randomly assigned to erlotinib (83 patients) or a standard platinum chemotherapy regimen of gemcitabine and carboplatin (82).
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Reference
- Caicun Zhou, Yi-Long Wu, Gongyan Chen, et al. (2011). Erlotinib versus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with advanced EGFR mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (OPTIMAL, CTONG-0802): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 study Lancet Oncology DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(11)70184-X
- Mitsudomi, T. (2011). Erlotinib, gefitinib, or chemotherapy for EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer? Lancet Oncology DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(11)70194-2
Keywords: erlotinib, lung cancer, progression-free survival (PFS), tyrosin kinase inhibitors (TKI), EGFR mutation, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
22. 7. 2011 ecancermedicalscience
