Dose adjustment of Giotrif improved tolerability without an apparent impact on efficacy in NSCLC

Results from a new post-hoc analysis of two large Phase III trials (LUX-Lung 3 and LUX-Lung 6) assessing the impact of dose adjustments for Giotrif (afatinib) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were published in Annals of Oncology.

The analysis suggests specific dose reductions, as described in SmPC/prescribing information, led to decreases in the incidence and severity of treatment-related adverse events (AEs) in afatinib-treated patients without any apparent compromise in efficacy, says German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim, maker of the drug.

“Afatinib’s efficacy and safety profile in the first-line treatment of patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC has been well established in multiple large trials. This further analysis suggests that dosing of afatinib can be adjusted to help manage a patient’s treatment-related adverse events, without any apparent reduction in efficacy. This may provide physicians and their patients with confidence and allows physicians to help address adverse events,” commented principal investigator and lead author James Chih-Hsin Yang, director, Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, and Director, Graduate Institute of Oncology, National Taiwan University Cancer Center, Taiwan.