Comparative effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiotherapy versus EGFR‐tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of clinical stage IIIb lung adenocarcinoma patients with mutant EGFR

BACKGROUND: The standard of care for fit locally advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). However, in a subset of patients with lung adenocarcinoma with mutant EGFR (LA‐mEGFR), the role of EGFR‐tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is not clear. We compared CCRT versus TKIs for the treatment of stage IIIb LA‐mEGFR in a Taiwanese population. METHODS: We identified patients from the Taiwan Cancer Registry with good performance status at clinical stage IIIb LA‐mEGFR, diagnosed from June 2011 to December 2015 and treated with either TKIs or CCRT. Clinical covariables and survival status were also collected. The Cox regression method was used in the primary analyses and several propensity score methods and alternative study cohort definitions were used in additional analyses. RESULTS: We compared the data of 177 TKI and 22 CCRT patients and found no statistically significant difference in overall (adjusted hazard ratio of death 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.34–1.47) or lung cancer‐specific survival (hazard ratio 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.31–1.35). The results of most additional analyses were insignificant. CONCLUSION: In this population‐based study from Taiwan with limited case numbers, no statistical difference in the survival outcomes of patients with clinical stage IIIb LA‐mEGFR treated with either EGFR‐TKIs or CCRT was determined. Further prospective studies are needed to clarify our findings.