Has anyone been cured after taking Osimertinib/Tagressa?

In current medical understanding, "curing" non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) especially advanced or metastatic lung adenocarcinoma remains a very challenging goal. Osimertinib/Tagressa Although known as the star drug among the third generationEGFR-TKI, it can significantly extend the progression-free survival and overall survival, but it has not yet been able to universally achieve complete tumor elimination in the sense of "cure". However, it is worth noting that some specific groups of people have indeed experienced very few cases that are close to "clinical cure" after long-term treatment with osimertinib. These patients usually have the following characteristics: simple sensitive mutations of EGFR (such as Exon 19 deletion), low tumor burden, few comorbidities, early initiation of treatment, high treatment compliance, and rapid complete response (CR) after receiving osimertinib treatment.

In some clinical trials and real-world retrospective studies, a very small number of patients are still disease-free during long-term follow-up (such as more than 4 to 5 years), with tumors completely disappearing on imaging, tumor markers normal, and quality of life good. Although such cases cannot be said to be "completely cured", they have indeed entered the category of "long-term control" or even "functional cure". Especially in postoperative adjuvant therapy, as shown in the ADAURA study, for patients with early-stage lung adenocarcinoma who are positive for EGFR mutations and undergo radical surgery, postoperative use of osimertinib can significantly prolong disease-free survival. Some patients may obtain a cure-like prognosis through combined surgery + targeted therapy.

However, clinically we still need to be alert to the emergence of drug resistance, such as C797S, MET amplification, HER2 mutation, etc., which may lead to a decrease in efficacy. Therefore, although “cure” is not the primary goal of osimertinib, long-term remission and very low relapse rates have become a reality for some patients with good prognosis. In the future, through combined treatment, individualized programs and early intervention, osimertinib may help more lung cancer patients move towards cure.

Reference materials:https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB09330