Meta-analysis of Targeted Therapies in EGFR-mutated Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Some of the non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases enhance somatic mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene within the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) domain. In such cases, first-line treatments are EGFR-TKIs, including osimertinib, erlotinib, or gefitinib. Therefore, this meta-analysis aims to assess the safety and efficacy of first-line targeted therapies for EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC patients, focusing on osimertinib, erlotinib, and gefitinib. Methods: A systematic electronic search was conducted on 3 electronic databases—Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science—from inception to May 2024 to locate relevant trials reporting the safety and efficacy of osimertinib, erlotinib, or gefitinib in treating EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC. No language or data restriction was applied to the search strategy. The assessed effects were objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). RoB 2 tool was utilized to determine the risk of bias while R programming language performed all the statistical synthesis. Results: Out of 15,275 search results, only 19 trials were eligible for this meta-analysis. All the 3 EGFR-TKIs depicted effectiveness and safety among NSCLC patients, but osimertinib improved the ORR by 72% (95% CI: 65%, 78%) as compared with erlotinib (69% [95% CI: 58%, 79%]) and gefitinib (64% [95% CI: 64%, 78%]). Overall, the 3 EGFR-TKIs were effective by improving ORR 68% (95% CI: 63%, 73%). Similarly, osimertinib demonstrated highly effective impacts in disease control among NSCLC patients by 94% (95% CI: 91%, 97%) compared with gefitinib (68% [95% CI: 41%, 89%]). Overall, the 2 EGFR-TKIs were effective in disease control among NSCLC patients (82% [95% CI: 67%, 93%]). Conclusions: The pooled analyses have shown that erlotinib, gefitinib, and osimertinib are safe and effective first-line treatment options for patients with EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC. The meta-analysis outcomes have demonstrated that osimertinib, erlotinib, or gefitinib positively impact overall response rate and disease control.