Non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastases treated with first-line platinum-doublet chemotherapy: Analysis from the European FRAME study

We report on a post-hoc analysis of patients with brain metastases from a large prospective observational study of first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim was to describe baseline characteristics of NSCLC patients with brain metastases, understand their first-line treatment and report outcomes attained in real-world settings.

This post-hoc analysis included all patients in the European observational FRAME study who had brain metastases at initiation of first-line treatment. Descriptive statistics were used for continuous and categorical variables and survival outcomes were assessed using the Kaplan-Meier approach.

Our data showed that 17% of patients (263/1564) had spread of the disease to the brain at initiation of first-line treatment. Patients with brain metastases were slightly younger, and more likely to have NSCLC of non-squamous histology than the overall study sample. 34% had received prior palliative radiotherapy to the brain. Our analysis showed a median overall survival (OS) of 7.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 6.1-8.2] for all patients with brain metastases treated with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, ranging from 5.6 months for those treated with gemcitabine plus platinum up to 9.3 months for those treated with pemetrexed plus platinum. Further analysis showed that patients with brain metastases were more frequently treated with pemetrexed platinum-doublet therapy than with any other regimen.

Our analysis provides a unique set of real-world data which adds to current understanding about treatment decisions and outcomes for NSCLC patients with brain metastases for whom there is little clinical trial data available.