Efficacy of different sequential patterns after crizotinib progression in advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase‐positive non–small cell lung cancer

Abstract Background The efficacy difference between the second‐ and third‐generation of anaplastic lymphoma kinase‐tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK‐TKIs) after crizotinib failure in advanced ALK‐positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been clarified. This study evaluates the efficacy of different sequential patterns after crizotinib progression. Methods Data of patients who met the study criteria were retrospectively analyzed. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to draw survival curves, log‐rank method was used to compare the differences between groups, and Cox multivariate analysis was used to evaluate the significance of influencing factors. Results A total of 128 patients developed disease progression after crizotinib. The overall survival (OS) of 57 patients in the sequential second‐generation ALK‐TKIs group was significantly longer than that of 65 patients with other systemic treatment (58.5 months vs. 33.0 months, p