Overview of the LUX-Lung clinical trial program of afatinib for non-small cell lung cancer

•EGFR TKIs are important first-line options for EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC.•The LUX-Lung clinical trial program evaluated afatinib in lung cancer.•Afatinib showed consistent clinical benefit in EGFR-mutated NSCLC and in SCC. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have emerged as first-line treatment for the management of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Erlotinib and gefitinib were the initial TKIs to be approved for lung cancer and showed improved response rates compared with chemotherapy. Afatinib is an irreversible ErbB family blocker that has also been shown to be active in EGFR-mutated NSCLC. Afatinib has been tested as first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC in the LUX-Lung trial program, as well as in the second- and third-line settings. In this article, we will review the data from the 8 reported LUX-Lung trials.