Boehringer Ingelheim presented the results of the LUX-Lung 7 trial, which showed improved progression-free survival (PFS) and time-to-treatment failure for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with second-generation EGFR-directed therapy afatinib, compared to first-generation gefitinib.
“LUX-Lung 7 is the second positive head-to-head trial of afatinib versus first-generation EGFR TKIs in lung cancer, showing that first and second-generation EGFR-targeted agents are not the same,” Boehringer Ingelheim Solid Tumor Oncology Medical Head Dr. Mehdi Shahidi said. “Interestingly, the progression-free survival difference observed in the LUX-Lung 7 trial became more prominent over time, so that by 24 months the rate of patients who were free of cancer growth was more than doubled with afatinib.”
Those treated with afatinib demonstrated a 27 percent decrease in the risk of lung cancer progression as compared to those on gefitinib, and the risk reduction became greater over time. After 18 months, 27 percent of afatinib-treated patients were alive and progression-free compared to 15 percent of gefitinib, and at 24 months those figures were even further differentiated to 18 percent versus eight percent.
These improvements were consistent across most patient sub-groups like gender, age, race and AGFR mutation type. Afatinib also proved more effective at reducing tumor size, demonstrated in 70 percent of patients compared to 56 percent on gefitinib.
