The results suggested that gefitinib and erlotinib are effective for advanced NSCLC with comparable PFS (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.98-1.11, P = .15), OS (95% CI: 0.93-1.19, P = .45), ORR (95% CI: 0.99-1.16, P = .07), and DCR (95% CI: 0.92-1.03, P = .35).
In patients with advanced NSCLC, erlotinib-doublets target therapy (specially combination with anti-angiogenesis and anti-MET targeted agents) was associated with a statistically significantly longer PFS, greater ORR and DCR, but the combination did not improve OS and 1-year SR compared with erlotinib alone.
Similarly, compared to EGFR TKIs monotherapy, the intercalated combination of chemotherapy and EGFR TKIs seemed superior to EGFR TKIs alone in terms of PFS, ORR and DCR (PFS: HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.62-0.91, ORR: RR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.12-2.00 and DCR: RR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.15-1.54) in advanced NSCLC therapy.