Tagrisso-Chemo Combo Improves Progression-Free Survival in NSCLC Subset

Findings from the FLAURA2 trial showed that adding Tagrisso to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in certain patients with lung cancer.

Preliminary results from a phase 3 trial demonstrated that Tagrisso (osimertinib) plus chemotherapy improved survival compared with Tagrisso alone in patients with locally advanced (stage 3B or 3C) or metastatic (stage 4) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

In particular, findings from the FLAURA2 trial showed that adding Tagrisso to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival, or the time during and after treatment when a patient with cancer lives with the disease without worsening, versus chemotherapy alone in this patient population, according to a press release from AstraZeneca, the drug’s manufacturer.

“As the global standard of care for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer, (Tagrisso) monotherapy has transformed the treatment landscape allowing many patients the opportunity to achieve improved survival,” Dr. Pasi A. Jänne, medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and principal investigator for the FLAURA2 trial, said in the release. “FLAURA2 provides compelling evidence that the addition of chemotherapy to (Tagrisso) can provide a new option for patients and clinicians that further improves outcomes compared to (Tagrisso) alone and as such, can further delay treatment resistance and disease progression.”

In the FLAURA2 trial, researchers aimed to determine whether Tagrisso plus chemotherapy would be more effective than Tagrisso itself in patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC, according to the trial’s listing on ClinicalTrials.gov. To do so, researchers enrolled 587 patients with EGFR-positive, locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC who were assigned either combination therapy or monotherapy.

Several factors were monitored throughout the trial including progression-free survival, overall survival (time from treatment assignment to all-cause death), objective response rate and duration of response, among others.

“These significant FLAURA2 results show Tagrisso has the potential to offer patients in the first-line setting a new treatment option that can extend the time they live without their disease progressing,” Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said in the release. “This meaningfully builds on successive trials which have demonstrated improved clinical benefit with Tagrisso in patients with EGFR-mutated lung cancer.”​

These data will be presented at a future medical meeting, according to the release.

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