LUX-Lung 6 and other Afatinib Trials

Interview with Prof James-Chih-Hsin Yang
Director of the Cancer Research Center,
College of Medicine, National Taiwan University,
Taipei, Taiwan

Q. What is the LUX-Lung 6 trial?

A. So LUX-Lung 6 is a sister trial of LUX-Lung 3. Essentially, the design of LUX-Lung 6 is identical to LUX-Lung 3, with the exception that the chemotherapy comparator was changed from pemetrexed / cisplatinum of LUX-Lung 3 to gemcitabine and cisplatinum in LUX-Lung 6. LUX-Lung 6 was carried out only in China, India and Korea. The reason for change of the chemotherapy is that pemetrexed was not approved in some of the countries. The study, the result of LUX-Lung 6 is expected to be out in about half a year to a year.

Q. What other important studies is afatinib being tested in?

A. There are several studies that are being conducted or designed for afatinib; one of them is LUX-Lung 7. LUX-Lung 7 compares afatinib to gefitinib in patients with EGFR mutations that have never received any prior treatment. And LUX-Lung 8 is a Phase III study that compares afatinib to erlotinib in patients who receive chemotherapy. So these are very important comparative studies for afatinib.