Patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have not progressed on first-line chemotherapy can now be prescribed erlotinib (Tarceva) after being approved by the TGA.
The TGA approval of erlotinib as a first-line maintenance therapy was based on the SequentiAl Tarceva in UnResectable NSCLC (SATURN) clinical study.
This study showed that in patients whose disease had not progressed following four cycles of first-line chemotherapy, erlotinib significantly improved PFS compared to placebo, reducing the risk of disease progression by 29% (HR=0.71, p<0.0001).
This improvement in PFS was demonstrated in all pre-defined patient sub-groups
irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, smoking history, histology and EGFR mutation status.
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