The application is based on data from the Phase III Interest study, which showed that patients with pre-treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received gefitinib had non-inferior overall survival to those treated with intravenous chemotherapy (docetaxel).
AstraZeneca said that gefitinib had a more favorable tolerability profile than docetaxel and significantly more patients receiving gefitinib had an improvement in quality of life.