Afatinib for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic EGFR-positive NSCLC: a look at the data

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are detected in about 10–15% of Caucasian and 30–40% of Asian patients with advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In patients harbouring EGFR mutations, the treatment with different available EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) showed to be more effective and safe than platinum-based chemotherapy regimens.

Areas covered: The current evidences about the role of afatinib for patients with EGFR-positive NSCLC are reviewed and discussed. We report a review based on a MEDLINE/PubMed, searched for randomized phase II or III trials evaluating afatinib in EGFR-positive NSCLC.

Expert commentary: Afatinib is the third EGFR TKI approved for the treatment of NSCLC harbouring EGFR mutations, showing high efficacy in this setting of patients.

KEYWORDS:

• NSCLC
• EGFR
• afatinib
• lung cancer
• TKI
• tyrosine kinase inhibitor
• LUX-Lung 7
• dose reduction
• uncommon mutation

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.