“Lines of therapy” is the term used to describe the order in which different therapies are given to people as their disease progresses.
In practice, doctors may choose a patient’s next line of therapy based on established treatment guidelines, recently published clinical trial results, or even the person’s unique life situation. For clinical trials, lines of therapy — including how many and which therapies were given — are often included in the enrollment requirements. Some trials even study if an already-approved therapy should be given as an earlier line of therapy or a later line of therapy than what is currently recommended.
A related term you may hear is “sequencing”. This term refers to the order in which drugs are given. You can learn more about sequencing in our recent post: What is “Drug Sequencing”?
The following articles define lines of therapy, discuss how each line of therapy is chosen, and explain current MBC treatment guidelines.
- Very Well Health: First-line treatment is the first set of treatments given
- Very Well Health: This article describes first-line treatments for different subtypes of MBC
- Met Up UK: This article and graphics show first-, second-, and third-line treatments for different subtypes of MBC
- Metastatic Trial Talk: Treatment guidelines for MBC
Last Modified on June 3, 2024