Strategies for maintenance therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: current status, unanswered questions and future directions

Abstract

Systemic chemotherapy (CT) with platinum-based doublets result in modest improvements in both overall survival (OS) and quality of life in good performance status patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, although substantial progress has been made in the therapeutic options currently available for these patients, the overall outcome remains poor. Maintenance therapy for patients who achieved at least stable disease after first-line treatment has been an area of intense investigation in recent years as a way of improving outcomes in metastatic NSCLC. Several alternative strategies for prolongation of initial treatment have been evaluated. These include the prolongation of the initial combination CT regimen until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or a predefined greater number of cycles, continuation with a lower intensity version of the first-line CT regimen or administration of a new active agent immediately after completion of the first-line therapy (switch-maintenance or early second-line therapy). Treatments that have been studied in randomized trials to date include CT, molecularly targeted agents, and immunotherapy approaches. Phase III trials have not revealed a survival benefit for extended first-line CT with combination regimens for more than 4-6 cycles. Nevertheless, early second-line therapy with pemetrexed in nonsquamous tumours and erlotinib have demonstrated to improve OS results, especially in select patient groups characterized by histology and/or molecular profile. This article reviews recent data with maintenance therapy in advanced NSCLC and discusses the implications for routine patient care and future drug development.