Dacomitinib versus erlotinib in patients with advanced-stage, previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer (ARCHER 1009): a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial.

BACKGROUND: Dacomitinib is an irreversible pan-EGFR family tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Findings from a phase 2 study in non-small cell lung cancer showed favourable efficacy for dacomitinib compared with erlotinib. We aimed to compare dacomitinib with erlotinib in a phase 3 study. METHODS: In a randomised, multicentre, double-blind phase 3 trial in 134 centres in 23 countries, we enrolled patients who had locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, progression after one or two previous regimens of chemotherapy, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2, and presence of measurable disease. We randomly assigned patients in a 1:1 ratio to dacomitinib (45 mg/day) or erlotinib (150 mg/day) with matching placebo. Treatment allocation was masked to the investigator, patient, and study funder. Randomisation was stratified by histology (adenocarcinoma vs non-adenocarcinoma), ethnic origin (Asian vs non-Asian and Indian sub-continent), performance status (0-1 vs 2), and smoking status (never-smoker vs ever-smoker). The coprimary endpoints were progression-free survival per independent review for all randomly assigned patients, and for all randomly assigned patients with KRAS wild-type tumours. The study has completed accrual and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01360554. FINDINGS: Between June 22, 2011, and March 12, 2013, we enrolled 878 patients and randomly assigned 439 to dacomitinib (256 KRAS wild type) and 439 (263 KRAS wild type) to erlotinib. Median progression-free survival was 2·6 months (95% CI 1·9-2·8) in both the dacomitinib group and the erlotinib group (stratified hazard ratio [HR] 0·941, 95% CI 0·802-1·104, one-sided log-rank p=0·229). For patients with wild-type KRAS, median progression-free survival was 2·6 months for dacomitinib (95% CI 1·9-2·9) and erlotinib (95% CI 1·9-3·0; stratified HR 1·022, 95% CI 0·834-1·253, one-sided p=0·587). In patients who received at least one dose of study drug, the most frequent grade 3-4 adverse events were diarrhoea (47 [11%] patients in the dacomitinib group vs ten [2%] patients in the erlotinib group), rash (29 [7%] vs 12 [3%]), and stomatitis (15 [3%] vs two [<1%]). Serious adverse events were reported in 52 (12%) patients receiving dacomitinib and 40 (9%) patients receiving erlotinib. INTERPRETATION: Irreversible EGFR inhibition with dacomitinib was not superior to erlotinib in an unselected patient population with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer or in patients with KRAS wild-type tumours. Further study of irreversible EGFR inhibitors should be restricted to patients with activating EGFR mutations. FUNDING: Pfizer.

Phase 2 trial of erlotinib with or without PF-3512676 (CPG 7909, a Toll-like receptor 9 agonist) in patients with advanced recurrent EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

This phase 2 study assessed PF-3512676 plus erlotinib in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer after prior chemotherapy failure. Patients were randomized 1:1 to PF-3512676 (0.20 mg/kg injected subcutaneously once weekly) plus erlotinib (150 mg daily) or erlotinib alone. The primary objective was to estimate progression-free survival (PFS). Patients received PF-3512676 plus erlotinib (n = 18) or erlotinib alone (n = 21). The study was halted because an unplanned interim analysis indicated that large improvement in PFS with addition of PF-3512676 would be unlikely. In the PF-3512676-plus-erlotinib and erlotinib-alone arms, median PFS was 1.6 and 1.7 mo (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% confidence interval, 0.5-2.0; P = 0.9335), respectively. Salient grade ≥ 3 adverse events in PF-3512676-plus-erlotinib and erlotinib-alone arms were diarrhea (5/0), dyspnea (5/6), fatigue (4/1), other flu-like symptoms (2/0), anemia (2/1), and lymphocytopenia (based on laboratory values, 1/4). Adding PF-3512676 to erlotinib did not show potential for increased progression-free survival over erlotinib alone in patients with advanced recurrent epidermal growth factor receptor-positive non-small cell lung cancer.