Treatment optimization in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

It is desirable for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to be treated efficiently. This can apply for the effectiveness, the safety, or the costs of the treatment. In this thesis, research was performed in three different areas to evaluate potential treatment optimization in patients with NSCLC. Firstly, three analytical methods were developed and validated to quantify the concentration of several anti-cancer drugs in blood. In the second part, four observational studies were performed. This part consisted of two subsections: a) evaluation of the treatment outcomes with osimertinib, a specific anti-cancer drug, in the Dutch clinical practice, and b) two studies with two large, British, databases. In the last part of this thesis a clinical study is presented, in which the potential of increasing the osimertinib exposure was evaluated, without the need to increase the osimertinib intake. The results of this thesis can be used to guide the treatment of patients with NSCLC in the clinical practice, or serve as starting point for future research.