Dr. Wakelee on Recent Advancements in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor of medicine (oncology) at the Stanford University Medical Center, discussed the latest therapeutic developments in EGFR-mutant non—small cell lung cancer.

There is a lot happening in this area of lung cancer, as there are now first-, second-, and third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), Wakelee explains. Osimertinib (Tagrisso) is the only available third-generation TKI, she says, but there are many being investigated. Most of the data that have been most interesting are the direct comparisons with different TKIs in the frontline setting.

The phase III FLAURA trial, for example, explored first-line treatment with osimertinib versus standard erlotinib (Tarceva) or gefitinib (Iressa) in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC; results showed a clear improvement in progression-free survival. Overall survival is not yet significant, but is trending in favor of osimertinib. The drug also has better tolerability than other EGFR TKIs, she adds.

The FDA approved osimertinib as a first-line treatment for patients with NSCLC whose tumors harbor EGFR mutations (exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R substitution mutations) in April 2018 based on the FLAURA data.

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