Positive Data about Afatinib Gives More Hope to Lung Cancer Patients

5:05:00 PM | 11/12/2014

Boehringer Ingelheim announced data from a pre-specified subgroup-analysis of the pivotal Phase III LUX-Lung 3 trial which demonstrated that Asian non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with the most common type of EGFR mutation (exon 19 deletion; del19), lived significantly longer after receiving first-line treatment with afatinib compared to chemotherapy (33.3 vs 22.9 months, respectively). This equated to a significant 43 percent reduction in the risk of death. The data were recently presented at the 2014 IASLCAsia Pacific Lung Cancer Conference (APLCC), in Kuala Lumpur.

Previously reported data from the LUX-Lung 3 trial showed afatinib provided further benefits to NSCLC patients with common EGFR mutations (del19 and L858R), which account for 90 percent of all EGFR mutations. Patients with common EGFR mutations taking afatinib lived for over a year without their tumour growing (progression free survival; PFS of 13.6 months; primary endpoint) versus just over half a year (PFS of 6.9 months) for chemotherapy. In addition, more patients taking afatinib experienced an improvement in lung cancer-related symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, chest pain) and a significantly better quality of life, when compared with chemotherapy.

Furthermore, in a combined exploratory analysis of the LUX-Lung 3 and LUX-Lung 6 trials, afatinib prolonged overall survival (secondary endpoint) of patients with common EGFR mutations compared with standard chemotherapy by a median of 3 months (27.3 compared to 24.3 months, respectively).

TKD