By Bhanvi Satija

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) said on

Tuesday its chemotherapy-free combination treatment showed a

meaningful improvement in extending lives of patients with a

type of lung cancer, compared to AstraZeneca's ( AZN )

blockbuster drug Tagrisso.

The combination of J&J's cancer drugs Rybrevant and

lazertinib, approved in August for previously untreated

non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with an EGFR

mutation, showed a statistically significant improvement in

median overall survival, meeting a key secondary goal of a

late-stage study.

But the company did not disclose the exact details in terms

of life extension compared to AstraZeneca's ( AZN ) Tagrisso, which has

shown to help extend lives of such NSCLC patients by 38.6 months

on average in a separate study.

J&J said it will disclose details of the Tagrisso arm of its

study at an upcoming medical meeting, and also plans to share

full overall survival data with health authorities.

"Our expectation (is) that we're going to see an improvement

in that median overall survival exceeding a year," said

Mark Wildgust, who heads J&J's global medical affairs for

oncology.

"We're going to put that median overall survival beyond four

years," he added.

Some analysts have previously said that doctors might prefer

to use a single therapy over combinations for previously

untreated patients, but a better survival rate could tip the

scale in their favor.

"Physicians always look for the best option in the front

line, and when they define what the best option is, they look

for overall survival that they will give to their patients,"

said Biljana Naumovic, who oversees J&J's commercial strategy

for cancer treatments.

NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, and the EGFR

mutation occurs in 10-15% of the cases in the United States,

according to data from the American Lung Association.

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)