# Osimertinib or Platinum-Pemetrexed in EGFR T790M-Positive Lung Cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-osimertinib-nsclc-n-engl-j-med-2017/  
OnCo record `paper-osimertinib-nsclc-n-engl-j-med-2017` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Phase 2 or 3 results paper on Osimertinib in Non-small-cell lung cancer, in New England Journal of Medicine (2017), one of the most cited Europe PMC records with Osimertinib in its title.

## Summary

Background: Osimertinib is an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) that is selective for both EGFR-TKI sensitizing and T790M resistance mutations in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. The efficacy of osimertinib as compared with platinum-based therapy plus pemetrexed in such patients is unknown.

Methods: In this randomized, international, open-label, phase 3 trial, we assigned 419 patients with T790M-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, who had disease progression after first-line EGFR-TKI therapy, in a 2:1 ratio to receive either oral osimertinib (at a dose of 80 mg once daily) or intravenous pemetrexed (500 mg per square meter of body-surface area) plus either carboplatin (target area under the curve, 5 [AUC5]) or cisplatin (75 mg per square meter) every 3 weeks for up to six cycles; maintenance pemetrexed was allowed. In all the patients, disease had progressed during receipt of first-line EGFR-TKI therapy. The primary end point was investigator-assessed progression-free survival.

Results: The median duration of progression-free survival was significantly longer with osimertinib than with platinum therapy plus pemetrexed (10.1 months vs. 4.4 months; hazard ratio; 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23 to 0.41; P<0.001). The objective response rate was significantly better with osimertinib (71%; 95% CI, 65 to 76) than with platinum therapy plus pemetrexed (31%; 95% CI, 24 to 40) (odds ratio for objective response, 5.39; 95% CI, 3.47 to 8.48; P<0.001). Among 144 patients with metastases to the central nervous system (CNS), the median duration of progression-free survival was longer among patients receiving osimertinib than among those receiving platinum therapy plus pemetrexed (8.5 months vs. 4.2 months; hazard ratio, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.49). The proportion of patients with adverse events of grade 3 or higher was lower with osimertinib (23%) than with platinum therapy plus pemetrexed (47%).

Conclusions: Osimertinib had significantly greater efficacy than platinum therapy plus pemetrexed in patients with T790M-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (including those with CNS metastases) in whom disease had progressed during first-line EGFR-TKI therapy. (Funded by AstraZeneca; AURA3 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02151981.).

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 27959700 (DOI 10.1056/nejmoa1612674). Its title names Osimertinib and its text names Non-small-cell lung cancer; PubMed types it as a clinical trial report (Clinical Trial, Phase III, Comparative Study, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, research-article, Multicenter Study, Randomized Controlled Trial). It was matched automatically to the idea "Treat brain metastases as a disease with its own trials programme" and no figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
- Year: 2017
- DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa1612674
- Authors: Mok TS, Wu Y-L, Ahn M-J, et al.
- What it means: One of the most cited trial reports Europe PMC returns for Osimertinib in Non-small-cell lung cancer, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
- Caveats: Matched by Osimertinib in the title and Non-small-cell lung cancer in the title or abstract of the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.; Chosen as a phase 2 or 3 report by the record's publication type or its own wording, not by reading the paper.

## Sources

- N Engl J Med 2017: https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa1612674
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27959700/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/27959700

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