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 .
Quality of life with gefitinib in patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: quality of life analysis of North East Japan Study Group 002 Trial.
BACKGROUND For non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ) mutations , first-line gefitinib produced a longer progression-free survival interval than first-line carboplatin plus paclitaxel but did not show any survival advantage in the North East Japan 002 study . This report describes the quality of life ( QoL ) analysis of that study . METHODS  Chemotherapy-naïve patients with sensitive EGFR-mutated , advanced NSCLC were r and omized to receive gefitinib or chemotherapy ( carboplatin and paclitaxel ) .  Patient QoL was assessed weekly using the Care Notebook , and the primary endpoint of the QoL analysis was time to deterioration from baseline on each of the physical , mental , and life well-being QoL scales . Kaplan-Meier probability curves and log-rank tests were employed to clarify differences . RESULTS QoL data from 148 patients ( 72 in the gefitinib arm and 76 in the carboplatin plus paclitaxel arm ) were analyzed . Time to defined deterioration in physical and life well-being significantly favored gefitinib over chemotherapy ( hazard ratio [ HR ] of time to deterioration , 0.34 ; 95 % confidence interval [ CI ] , 0.23 - 0.50 ; p < .0001 and HR , 0.43 ; 95 % CI , 0.28 - 0.65 ; p < .0001 , respectively ) . CONCLUSION QoL was maintained much longer in patients treated with gefitinib than in patients treated with st and ard chemotherapy , indicating that gefitinib should be considered as the st and ard first-line therapy for advanced EGFR-mutated NSCLC in spite of no survival advantage
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 .