Dr. Pasi A. Janne

In EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer Tagrisso with pemetrexed and chemotherapy was associated with an improvement in survival.

Tagrisso Combination Improves Survival in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC

Clinical trial results have shown that among patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), first-line treatment with the combination of Tagrisso (osimertinib) with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy was associated with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in survival compared to treatment with Tagrisso alone.

Results from the phase 3 FLAURA2 clinical trial, presented during the Presidential Symposium at the IASLC 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Barcelona, Spain showed that the combination resulted in a median overall survival, or the time a patient lives regardless of disease status, of 47.5 months, versus 37.6 months for Tagrisso alone.

Overall survival: the time a patient lives, regardless of disease status.

Progression-free survival: the time a patient lives without their disease spreading or worsening.

CURE sat down for an interview with Dr. Pasi A. Janne, the senior vice president for Translational Medicine and thoracic medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and principal investigator for the FLAURA2 trial, to discuss these trial results and their significance for patients.

The combination was associated with an improvement or delay in the disease progression: an improvement in progression-free survival. What we also learned from the lung cancer meeting in September was that patients who received the combination as their initial therapy lived longer than those who started with [Tagrisso] alone. The median survival for patients who started with the combination was just shy of four years, which is the longest ever seen for this group of patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer who receive initial therapy in a randomized clinical trial.

These are very meaningful and impactful findings because we can now tell patients that there’s a combination treatment that can extend your life if administered from the beginning of treatment.

Even though the trial wasn’t designed to compare, “What if you start with [Tagrisso] and then get chemotherapy?” most of the patients who started with [Tagrisso] alone received chemotherapy when they got their next line of treatment. That suggests that there may be a benefit of receiving all of the treatments—chemotherapy and [Tagrisso] together in the beginning—as opposed to [Tagrisso] first, followed by chemotherapy.”

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

“Tagrisso plus chemotherapy demonstrated a median overall survival of nearly four years, the longest benefit ever reported in a global Phase III trial in EGFR-mutated advanced lung cancer,” news release; https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2025/tagrisso-plus-chemotherapy-demonstrated-a-median-overall-survival-of-nearly-four-years.html

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Dr. Pasi A. Janne

Tagrisso Combination Improves Survival in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC

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