Dr. Langer on Afatinib for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Corey Langer, MD, the director of Thoracic Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, discuses afatinib, which was approved in 2013 for first line EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Afatinib is one of the first irreversible EGFR TKIs that targets both HER1 and HER2 and may have activity in acquired resistance in T790M mutation, Langer says.

In the phase III LUX-Lung trial, 345 patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma received either afatinib or cisplatin and pemetrexed. For patients with EGFR alterations, progression-free survival (PFS) was 13.6 months with afatinib compared to 6.9 months with the chemotherapy combination.