Dr. Kujtan on Frontline Therapy for EGFR-Positive NSCLC

Lara Kujtan, MD, assistant professor at the University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine, discusses frontline therapy for patients with EGFR-positive non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Based on the FLAURA study, osimertinib (Tagrisso) has become the frontline standard of care for patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC, says Kujtan. In the trial, the EGFR TKI showed an improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) over gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva), meeting the study’s primary endpoint of improvement in PFS. Further, subgroup analysis revealed a consistent benefit across all subgroups, especially in patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases, she adds. However, the overall survival data are still immature.

In the ARCHER 1050 study, investigators compared the use of dacomitinib (Vizimpro), a second-generation EGFR TKI, with common regimens such as erlotinib and bevacizumab (Avastin) or gefitinib and chemotherapy, says Kujtan. Although these studies revealed a survival benefit, no CNS activity was observed.