Afatinib shows clinical benefit for Lung Cancer patients

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with common epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mutations and brain metastases showed improved progression-free survival (PFS) and response from the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Afatinib compared to standard platinum doublet chemotherapy. EGFR TKIs are highly effective therapies for advanced NSCLC driven by EGFR mutations, especially the common mutations, exon 19 deletions and L858R point mutations. Even though there are a number of EGFR TKIs approved for first-line therapy of EGFR mutation positive NSCLC, there is a scarcity of prospective data for EGFR TKIs in patients with brain metastases.
The overall results from both clinical trials have been published previously and showed that afatinib demonstrated significantly improved PFS, ORR, and patient-reported outcomes compared with platinum-based chemotherapy. Also, Afatinib demonstrated, for the first time with an EGFR TKI, improved OS in patients harboring EGFR Del19 mutations, the most common EGFR aberration in NSCLC patients.