Clearly this is a positive study, and the median progression-free survival and hazard ratio are amazing. It makes me think osimertinib is like a time machine that takes the patient back to the first line.

— Tetsuya Mitsudomi, MD

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“Osimertinib (Tagrisso) has good penetration of the blood-brain barrier and showed high efficacy in patients with central nervous system (CNS) disease,” noted Tetsuya Mitsudomi, MD, Professor in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Kindai University Faculty of Medicine in Osaka-Sayama, Japan.

“Clearly this is a positive study, and the median progression-free survival and hazard ratio are amazing. It makes me think osimertinib is like a time machine that takes the patient back to the first line,” he said.

“It’s going to become increasingly important to find patients with the T790M mutation, but rebiopsy is not always easy,” Dr. Mitsudomi added. He said future issues will include the optimal sequence of different epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (including first-line osimertinib) and developing strategies to cope with acquired resistance against osimertinib. ■

Disclosure: Dr. Mitsudomi has received honoraria from and is on the advisory boards of AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chugai, Pfizer, MSD, and Ono and has received grant support from Boehringer Ingelheim, Chugai, Pfizer, and Ono.