Clinical efficacy and safety of afatinib in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer in Chinese patients

Compared with various malignant tumors, lung cancer has high incidence and the highest mortality worldwide. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common kind of lung cancer, is still a great threat to the world, including China. Surgery, platinum-based chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are still the primary treatments for NSCLC patients in the clinic, whereas immunotherapy and targeted therapy are gradually playing more important roles. A next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), afatinib, was developed as a targeted reagent for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This targeted drug was effective in a series of trials. The US Food and Drug Administration then approved afatinib as a new first-line treatment for EGFR L858R and exon 19 deletion mutant patients in 2013. This review focused on current clinical studies of afatinib. Although this TKI was not widely available in China until recently, we aim to provide a reference for its future use in China.