Comparison of outcomes of tyrosine kinase inhibitor in first- or second-line therapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients with sensitive EGFR mutations

Direct comparisons between the use of first- and second-line EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in patients with sensitive EGFR mutations are limited. A total of 264 advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with sensitive mutations received EGFR TKI therapy as the first-line therapy, and a total of 187 patients received TKI as the second-line therapy at Shanghai Chest Hospital. First-line EGFR TKI therapy [12.9 months, 95% confidence interval (CI), 10.7-15.2] provided longer progression-free survival (PFS) than did second-line EGFR TKI therapy (9.0 months, 95% CI, 7.7-10.2) [hazard ratio (HR): 0.78, P = 0.034]. The objective response rate (ORR) of first-, and second-line TKI therapy were 67.8% (159/233) and 55.6% (94/169), respectively (P = 0.001). The overall survival (OS) for patients (n = 141) receiving first-line TKI followed by second-line chemotherapy were longer than those for patients (n = 187) receiving first-line chemotherapy followed by second-line TKI (HR: 0.69, P = 0.02).Compared with second-line TKI, first-line therapy achieved a significant and longer PFS, and higher ORR in the sensitive EGFR mutated NSCLC patients. The therapeutic strategy of using TKI followed by chemotherapy achieved longer OS than that using chemotherapy followed by TKI.