Adding chemotherapy to oral osimertinib in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small cell lung cancer prolongs progression-free survival by up to nine months, research shows.

US and French-led doctors say this benefit appeared consistent across patient subgroups, including those with either EGFR mutation type and with or without CNS metastases at baseline.

“The results of this trial support the combination of osimertinib plus platinum-pemetrexed as a new treatment option for patients,” they wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine.

However, the combination approach was associated with a higher rate of grade 3 adverse events compared with osimertinib alone (64% vs 27%), which the authors said was “driven by known chemotherapy-related adverse events”.