Dr. Goldberg Discusses Osimertinib in NSCLC

Sarah B. Goldberg, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, discusses osimertinib (Tagrisso) for the treatment of patients with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Although osimertinib is not yet approved by the FDA in the frontline setting, the NCCN updated its clinical practice guidelines in September 2017 to include frontline osimertinib for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-positive NSCLC.

This update was based on the findings from the FLAURA trial, which compared first-line osimertinib versus either erlotinib (Tarceva) or gefitinib (Iressa). Osimertinib demonstrated significant benefits in response rate and progression-free survival.

Goldberg says that an FDA approval gives oncologists a stronger backing to use a drug, and it becomes easier for patients to get through insurance. An FDA approval of osimertinib will lead to more people using it as a first-line treatment, she adds.