Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Targeted therapies

Front-line therapy in lung cancer with mutations in EGFR

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Large randomized phase III trials conducted in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring activating mutations in EGFR have demonstrated that erlotinib or gefitinib are superior to platinum-based chemotherapy. Zhou et al. have now confirmed that these agents represent the best treatment we can offer today as front-line therapy for EGFR-mutant NSCLC.boxed-text

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Zhou, C. C. et al. Erlotinib versus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with advanced EGFR mutation-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (OPTIMAL, CTONG-0802): a multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 study. Lancet Oncol. 12, 735–742 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gridelli, C. et al. International multicenter randomized phase III study of first-line erlotinib (E) followed by second-line cisplatin plus gemcitabine (CG) versus first-line CG followed by second-line E in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC): The TORCH trial [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 28 (Suppl. 15), a7508 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Giaccone, G. et al. Erlotinib for frontline treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a phase II study. Clin. Cancer Res. 12, 6049–6055 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Thomas, M. et al. Innovations: Randomized phase II trial of erlotinib (E)/bevacizumab (B) compared with cisplatin (P)/gemcitabine (G) plus B in first-line treatment of advanced nonsquamous (NS) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 29 (Suppl. 15), a7504 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Paez, J. G. et al. EGFR mutations in lung cancer: correlation with clinical response to gefitinib therapy. Science 304, 1497–1500 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Lee, J. S. et al. A randomized phase III study of gefitinib (IRESSA™) versus standard chemotherapy (gemcitabine plus cisplatin) as a first-line treatment for never-smokers with advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung [abstract PRS4]. J. Thor. Oncol. 4, S283–S284 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mok, T. S. et al. Gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. N. Engl. J. Med. 361, 947–957 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Maemondo, M. et al. Gefitinib or chemotherapy for non small-cell lung cancer with mutated EGFR. N. Engl. J. Med. 362, 2380–2388 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Mitsudomi, T. et al. Gefitinib versus cisplatin plus docetaxel in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer harbouring mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (WJTOG3405): an open label, randomised phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 11, 121–128 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Rosell, R. et al. Erlotinib versus chemotherapy (CT) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (p) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations: Interim results of the European erlotinib versus chemotherapy (EURTAC) phase III randomized trial [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 29 (Suppl. 15), a7503 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Toscano Tumori, Ospedale Civile, Viale Alfieri 36, Livorno, 57100, Italy

    Lorenza Landi & Federico Cappuzzo

Authors
  1. Lorenza Landi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Federico Cappuzzo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Federico Cappuzzo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

F. Cappuzzo receives honoraria from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Roche and he owns a patent on EGFR testing using fluorescence in situ hybridization. L. Landi declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Landi, L., Cappuzzo, F. Front-line therapy in lung cancer with mutations in EGFR. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 8, 571–573 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2011.135

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2011.135

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation