Abstract: Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of gefitinib versus platinumbased chemotherapy for patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer（NSCLC）. Methods Such databases as PubMed，Embase，CBM and CNKI were searched to collect the randomized controlled trials comparing gefitinib to platinum-based thirdgeneration chemotherapy as the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC published before March of 2012. Stata 100 software was used for metaanalysis. Results Four studies involving 1926 patients were included. The result of meta-analysis showed that in patients with known epidermal growth factor receptor（EGFR）mutations or whose tumors likely to harbor a mutation，gefitinib was better than chemotherapy in progress free survival and effective rate（HR=0.43，95％CI：0.32-0.58，P＜0.001；71.5％ vs.38.1％，OR=4.04，95％CI：2.90-5.61，P＜0.001），and there was no significant difference between the two groups in the overall survival （HR=0.93，95％CI：0.75-1.15，P=0.492）. In the aspect of safety，the major adverse events for gefitinib were rash，diarrhea and aminotransferase elevation，whereas platinum-based chemotherapy was associated with more neutropenia，anemia and thrombocytopenia.
Conclusion Gefitinib shows more superiority and can be used as the first-line drug for EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC.