According to findings from the TITAN study presented at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology, erlotinib has comparable efficacy to standard chemotherapy in the second-line treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The open-label study randomised patients with NSCLC that had progressed after treatment with first-line chemotherapy to treatment with erlotinib (n=203) or docetaxel or pemetrexed (n=221).  There was apparently no difference in overall survival or progression-free survival between the two groups [no data presented].  Serious treatment-related adverse events were seen in 1% of patients treated with erlotinib, compared to 6.6% of those in the chemotherapy arm of the study.