Can Osimertinib/Tagressa cure lung cancer?

Osimertinib/Tagrisso (Osimertinib) is a drug widely used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It belongs to a class of drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which block the growth and proliferation of cancer cells by targeting specific mutated genes present on tumor cells. To be clear, however, osimertinib does not completely cure lung cancer. Lung cancer is a complex and diverse disease, and the treatment process may involve a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other treatment methods.

In an early clinical study, osimertinib was compared with other cancer drugs (erlotinib/gefitinib). All patients in the trial were patients with newly diagnosed advanced non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR activating mutations. Among participants in the osimertinib group, the median overall survival was 38.6 months, compared with 31.8 months in the erlotinib/gefitinib group. Three years after starting treatment, 28% of osimertinib patients were still taking the drug — meaning their cancer was still responding to the drug — compared with about 9% of patients in the gefitinib/erlotinib group.

A total of 15% of patients in the osimertinib group discontinued due to side effects, compared with 18% of patients in the erlotinib/gefitinib group. In daily care, patients tolerated osimertinib well and were unlikely to experience side effects such as severe rash and diarrhea that are common with other EGFR-targeted drugs. It can be seen that osimertinib has shown significant efficacy in NSCLC patients, but it can only be used as a therapeutic drug to prolong the survival of patients and help control tumor progression.