Comparison of aprepitant versus desloratadine for EGFR-TKI-induced pruritus: A randomized phase 2 clinical trial

Pruritus is one of the most common and challenging side effects of epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) and has impaired patients' quality of life and treatment compliance. Our study evaluated the efficacy and safety of aprepitant in managing EGFR-TKIs-related pruritus.

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted between December 2016 and August 2020 in China. Patients were eligible if they were 18 years or older and had histologically confirmed locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with first onset of moderate to severe pruritus during EGFR-TKI treatment.

A total of 130 eligible patients were randomly assigned to aprepitant (n = 65) or desloratadine (n = 65) groups. The median (interquartile range [Q1, Q3]) age was 63 (54, 70) years, and 79 (60.8%) were women. Mean visual analog scale scores at baseline were 6.35 (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.89-6.82) in the aprepitant group and 5.94 (95% CI, 5.56-6.32) in the desloratadine group. After 1 week of treatment, 33 (53.2%) patients responded to aprepitant, which was significantly higher than that of 14 (23.7%) patients responded to desloratadine (p = .001). Moreover, patients in the aprepitant group had a significantly shorter response time than patients in the desloratadine group (mean [days], 13.39 [95% CI, 11.08-15.70] vs. 16.67 [95% CI, 14.19-19.13], p = .04). The most frequent drug-related adverse events in aprepitant group and desloratadine were constipation and dry mouth, and all adverse events were grade 1-2.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to prospectively present that aprepitant elicited a better and faster response and mild toxicity for managing EGFR-TKI induced pruritus than desloratadine.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02646020.