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Sequential treatment of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and chemotherapy for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of Phase III trials

Authors Zhang Y, Sun Y, Wang L, Ye T, Pan Y, Hu H, Yu Y, Zhao N, Song Y, Garfield D, Chen H

Received 14 September 2013

Accepted for publication 12 October 2013

Published 29 November 2013 Volume 2013:6 Pages 1771—1777

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S54502

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 3



Yiliang Zhang,1,* Yihua Sun,1,* Lei Wang,1 Ting Ye,1 Yunjian Pan,1 Haichuan Hu,1 Yongfu Yu,2 Naiqing Zhao,2 Yanyan Song,3 David Garfield,4 Haiquan Chen1

1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, 2Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Fudan University, 3Department of Pharmacology and Biostatistics, Institute of Medical Science, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 4ProMed Cancer Centers, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Background: This aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy followed, upon progression, by chemotherapy with the reverse sequence in patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in terms of overall survival.
Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of studies that met the following criteria: Phase III clinical trial comparing the sequencing of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced EGFR-mutated NSCLC; activating mutations reported; and availability of hazard ratio estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for overall survival.
Results: Six clinical trials were included in this study. The pooled hazard ratio for overall survival of the EGFR-mutated population that completed sequential treatment was 1.03 (95% CI 0.86–1.22, P=0.776). There was no statistically significant heterogeneity between the studies (tau2 =0; I2=0, 95% CI 0–0.37, P=0.548). Evidence of marked publication bias for the two treatment sequences was insufficient (P=0.145).
Conclusion: In patients with advanced NSCLC and activating EGFR mutations, first-line chemotherapy followed upon progression by a tyrosine kinase inhibitor was not inferior in terms of overall survival compared with the inverse sequence. This may serve as an indication that chemotherapy could be employed initially if mutation testing results are unavailable.

Keywords: EGFR mutation, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, chemotherapy, non-small cell lung cancer, clinical trial

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