Abstract

Erlotinib hydrochloride (Tarceva; OSI Pharmaceuticals/Genentech/Roche), a member of a class of targeted anticancer drugs that inhibit the activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor, was approved by the US FDA in November 2004 for the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimen. It is the first such drug to demonstrate an increase in survival in Phase III trials in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Author affiliations

1. Jonathan Dowell and John D. Minna are at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75390-8593, USA.
2. Peter Kirkpatrick is at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

Correspondence to: John D. Minna¹ Email: john.minna@utsouthwestern.edu

Correspondence to: Peter Kirkpatrick² Email: p.kirkpatrick@nature.com

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