Elderly patients

Elderly patients

Subgroup analyses of LUX-Lung 3 and LUX-Lung 6 patients showed that afatinib* treatment resulted in significant progression-free survival (PFS) benefit versus chemotherapy in patients aged ≥65 years in the overall study populations (median PFS in LUX-Lung 3: 11.3 vs 8.2 months, hazard ratio [HR]=0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.39–1.03; median PFS in LUX-Lung 6: 13.7 vs 4.1 months; HR=0.16; 95% CI: 0.07–0.39). Afatinib was also associated with PFS benefit in patients in this age group whose tumors had common epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations (median PFS in LUX-Lung 3: 13.7 vs 8.2 months; HR=0.45; 95% CI: 0.26–0.78; median PFS in LUX-Lung 6: 13.7 vs 4.1 months; HR=0.15; 95% CI: 0.06–0.38).¹ A significant increase in overall survival (OS) was also reported in elderly patients with del19 mutations in LUX-Lung 3 (median OS in this patient population: 41.5 vs 14.3 months; HR=0.39; 95% CI: 0.19–0.80).¹ The safety profile of afatinib was generally similar across age groups, with a slightly higher incidence of Grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events in elderly patients; however, this was also seen in the chemotherapy arm (cisplatin/pemetrexed in LUX-Lung 3 and cisplatin/gemcitabine in LUX-Lung 6).¹

In exploratory analyses of LUX-Lung 7, there was a trend towards improved median PFS with afatinib versus gefitinib across all age groups analysed.¹ OS with afatinib was generally consistent across age groups in LUX-Lung 7.¹