Describing the PROSE study findings at the Best of ASCO meeting, Heather A. Wakelee, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, concluded, “The results of PROSE indicate that the 30% to 35% of patients classified as VeriStrat ‘poor’ have better survival with chemotherapy than with erlotinib [Tarceva], but they have a worse prognosis than the ‘good’ group. The 65% to 70% classified as VeriStrat good have similar survival with erlotinib or chemotherapy, and better prognosis than the poor group.”

“Serum proteomic VeriStrat classification may be clinically useful in guiding treatment decisions in patients with non–small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] who have unknown or wild-type EGFR status in the second-line setting,” she commented.

“For those who questioned the utility of erlotinib as a second-line option for EGFR wild-type NSCLC, this may be helpful,” she added, “however, we await the response rate and progression-free survival data to fully evaluate the results of this study.” ■