Second-line therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: Cytotoxic agents or tyrosine kinase inhibitors? Our experience.

e18063 Background: Despite a number of effective first-line regimens, virtually all patients (pts) with advanced NSCLC will relapse. A second line therapy with docetaxel or pemetrexed, according to tumour histotype, represents the standard treatment for pts with a good performance status (PS). The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for pre-treated NSCLC pts have added a valid option in this setting. Methods: We have analyzed outcome data of 85 NSCLC pts (table), who received after a platinum-based chemotherapy, a second-line therapy with docetaxel, pemetrexed, erlotinib or gefitinib (expanded access program), in order to assess and compare their efficacy and tolerability in this setting. Results: As regards chemotherapy, pemetrexed was superior to docetaxel in all measures (RR 45% vs 5 %, TTP 5.5 vs 4.5 months, median survival 13.8 vs 9.9 months), but only RR was statistically significant (p=0.003). Gefitinib obtained a better TTP and OS than erlotinib, although the differences were not sta...