Afatinib Therapy: Practical Management of Adverse Events With an Oral Agent for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment.
Rebecca L Edwards, Christine Andan, Rajesh V Lalla and 3 others
PMID 30239509WHAT IT FOUND
Oncology nurses can help patients continue afatinib by teaching them early, watching for diarrhea, rash, and mouth sores, and using prescribed dose interruptions or reductions and supportive care.
Key findings
01Across afatinib trials, the most common treatment-related adverse events were diarrhea, rash/acne, and stomatitis/mucositis.
02Afatinib was started at 40 mg daily, and predefined dose reductions resumed treatment 10 mg lower when troublesome adverse events occurred.
03Post-hoc analyses found dose reductions lowered adverse-event burden without shortening median progression-free survival.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The paper is a narrative review, not a new trial, and it does not describe how sources were selected. Some management advice comes from earlier trials or expert recommendations rather than head-to-head tests in afatinib users. Adverse-event rates from trials may not match real-world clinical practice.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this review as a new trial. It summarizes earlier afatinib trial results and management advice, so it should not be used as primary evidence that a specific supportive care strategy was tested in afatinib patients.