Epidermal growth factor tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy inferior to second-line chemotherapy in EGFR wild-type non-small cell lung cancer patients: results of French nationwide observational study

In the recent issue of The European Respiratory Journal, Tomasini et al. report on an observational study comparing the clinical, biological, treatment and outcome data for epidermal growth factor wild-type (EGFR-wt) advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who received second-line treatment with an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) versus those that received second-line chemotherapy, collected in France over a 1 year period (1). Their central finding, that clinical outcomes with second-line EGFR TKI therapy in EGFR-wt patients were inferior to those with second-line chemotherapy, underscores the ineffectual nature of the treatment of EGFR-wt NSCLC with an EGFR TKI.