In the third-line setting , for patients who have not received erlotinib or gefitinib , treatment with erlotinib is recommended .
There are insufficient data to recommend routine third-line cytotoxic therapy .
Purpose To provide evidence -based recommendations to up date the American Society of Clinical Oncology guideline on systemic therapy for stage IV non – small-cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ) .
Results This guideline up date reflects changes in evidence since the previous guideline .
A Randomized Phase 3 Trial Comparing Pemetrexed/Carboplatin and Docetaxel/Carboplatin as First-Line Treatment for Advanced, Nonsquamous Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Introduction : This study compared survival without toxicity in patients with advanced , nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with first-line pemetrexed/carboplatin or docetaxel/carboplatin .  Methods : This multicenter , open-label , parallel-group , phase 3 trial comprised patients r and omized ( 1:1 ) to pemetrexed/carboplatin ( n = 128 ) or docetaxel/carboplatin ( n = 132 ) . Patients received treatment on day 1 of each 21-day cycle ( maximum of six cycles ) . Treatment included carboplatin ( area under the curve = 5 mg/ml × min ) and pemetrexed ( 500 mg/m2 ) or docetaxel ( 75 mg/m2 ) . The primary outcome measure , survival without treatment-emergent grade 3/4 toxicity , was defined as the time from r and omization to the first treatment-emergent grade 3/4 adverse event or death and was analyzed using a log-rank test . The analysis population included 106 patients in the pemetrexed/carboplatin ( Pem/Carb ) group and 105 patients in the docetaxel/carboplatin ( Doc/Carb ) group . Results : Survival without treatment-emergent grade 3/4 toxicity was significantly longer in the Pem/Carb versus the Doc/Carb group ( log-rank p < 0.001 ; median survival without treatment-emergent grade 3/4 toxicity : 3.2 versus 0.7 months ; adjusted hazard ratio = 0.45 [ 95 % confidence interval : 0.34–0.61 ] ) . Overall survival was similar in the Pem/Carb versus the Doc/Carb group ( log-rank p = 0.934 ; median survival : 14.9 versus 14.7 months ; adjusted hazard ratio = 0.93 [ 95 % confidence interval : 0.66–1.32 ] ) . Compared with the Doc/Carb group , fewer patients in the Pem/Carb group experienced grade 3/4 drug-related , treatment-emergent neutropenia , leukopenia , or febrile neutropenia , and more patients experienced anemia and thrombocytopenia . There were three study drug-related deaths during treatment in each group . Conclusions : The favorable benefit-to-risk profile of pemetrexed/carboplatin suggests that pemetrexed/carboplatin is an appropriate first-line treatment option for chemonaïve patients with advanced , nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer
In the third-line setting , for patients who have not received erlotinib or gefitinib , treatment with erlotinib is recommended .
There are insufficient data to recommend routine third-line cytotoxic therapy .
Purpose To provide evidence -based recommendations to up date the American Society of Clinical Oncology guideline on systemic therapy for stage IV non – small-cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ) .
Results This guideline up date reflects changes in evidence since the previous guideline .