Erlotinib Versus Gemcitabine/Cisplatin as (Neo)Adjuvant Treatment in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Stage IIIA NSCLC represents a relatively heterogeneous group of pts with ipsilateral mediastinal (N2) lymph node involvement. The relative roles of treatment modalities are not clearly defined. Concurrent chemoradiation therapy remains an important treatment for stage IIIA disease, but its treatment-related life threatening toxicity limits its use. The EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) may provide a dramatic response in pts with pulmonary adenocarcinoma carrying EGFR activating mutations in the metastatic setting. In the OPTIMAL study, first-line erlotinib versus carboplatin/GEM in advanced NSCLC pts with EGFR activating mutations, the primary analysis showed significantly prolonged progressive free survival (PFS) was with erlotinib vs carboplatin/GEM (p\<0.0001). The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of erlotinib versus GEM plus cisplatin (GC) as neoadjuvant treatment in pts with stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC with EGFR activating mutations and to explore a new treatment strategy for this subset.