Osimertinib plus Chemotherapy Improves Outcomes in Advanced EGFR-Mutant NSCLC

Osimertinib, a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor–tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI), is the standard of care for patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with classic activating mutations. Despite initial responses to osimertinib, patients eventually develop resistance to this targeted therapy and median progression-free survival (PFS) with osimertinib is approximately 19 months. Because combining earlier generation TKIs with chemotherapy could have an additive effect, there was interest in evaluating osimertinib with chemotherapy in the frontline setting.

In an industry-funded, open-label, phase 3 study, 557 patients with EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC were randomly assigned to osimertinib alone …