Effectiveness of afatinib and gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in Indonesia: Observational studies with retrospectives

Abstract

Effectiveness data can describe the results or performance of an intervention (treatment) in daily clinical practice and also provide recommendations to policymakers regarding the need or not of health technology to be implemented into the health care system. Research related to the effectiveness of afatinib and gefitinib is still minimal, especially in Indonesia. This study aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of afatinib and gefitinib in daily clinical practice (the real world) as first-line therapy. This research is an observational study with a retrospective approach that observes the medical records of NSCLC patients who have EGFR mutations in Dr. Sardjito General Hospital Yogyakarta and Dr. Kariadi General Hospital Semarang, Java Island, Indonesia in the period January 2016-March 2019. The effectiveness seen is the Progress Free Survival and Overall Survival based on the patient’s medical records and analyzed using the Kaplan Meier test to see survival. There were 113 patients identified, 27 patients using afatinib, and 86 patients using gefitinib. Afatinib had significantly superior progression-free survival (448 days or 14.7 months; 95% CI = 12-17.4 months; p = 0.002) compared to gefitinib (344 days or 11.3 months; 95% CI = 8, 4-14.3 months), however, overall survival of afatinib is no better than gefitinib (472 days or 15.5 months; 95% CI = 13.8-17.2 months vs 653 days or 21.4 months; 95% CI = 18-24.8 months) with a value of p = 0.302. Afatinib has superior progression-free survival compared to gefitinib, but not overall survival as first-line therapy in NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations.