Characteristics of included RCTs
| Study | Region | Participant (erlotinib plus bevacizumab group/ erlotinib group) | Gender (male/female) | Age | Histology (adenocarcinoma/ large cell carcinoma/ squamous cell/ others) | Clinical stage | EGFR genomic aberration (19 deletion/ 21 Leu858Arg mutation) | Outcome | Study design |
| JO25567 (Seto et al 2014; Yamamoto et al 2021)16 18 | Japan | 152 (75/77) | 56/96 | 67 (59–73) | 150/1/0/1 | IIIb–IV | 80/72 | PFS, OS, ORR, AEs | Phase II RCT |
| Stinchcombe et al 201920 | America | 88 (43/45) | 26/62 | 63 (31–84) | – | M1a,M1b | 59/29 | PFS, OS, ORR, AEs | Phase II RCT |
| NEJ026 (Saito et al 2019; Kawashima et al 2021)17 26 | Japan | 224 (112/112) | 80/144 | 67 (61–73) | 222/1/0/1 | IIIb–IV | 111/113 | PFS, OS, ORR, AEs, | Phase III RCT |
| Zhou et al, 202119 | China | 311 (157/154) | 118/193 | 57(27–78) | 311/0/0/0 | IIIb–IV | 161/150 | PFS, OS, ORR, AEs | Phase III RCT |
AE, adverse event; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; ORR, objective response rate; OS, overall survival; PFS, progression-free survival; RCT, randomised controlled trial.