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. 2013 Aug;5(4):400-5.
doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2013.07.28.

Re-administration after the failure of gefitinib or erlotinib in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Zhengbo Song  1 , Xinmin Yu, Chunxiao He, Beibei Zhang, Yiping Zhang
Affiliations

Re-administration after the failure of gefitinib or erlotinib in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Zhengbo Song et al. J Thorac Dis. 2013 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: Few treatment options are available for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who have failed of gefitinib or erlotinib treatment in second/third-line treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of re-administration of the same TKI after failure of gefitinib or erlotinib.

Patients and methods: The clinical data of 33 patients with advanced NSCLC were retrospectively analyzed. All of the patients were given the same TKI treatment after the failure of gefitinib or erlotinib. Survival analysis was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: Twenty patients (60.6%) were re-administration with gefitinib as the 2(nd) EGFR-TKI, and thirteen patients (39.4%) received erlotinib. One patient (3.0%) showed partial response (PR), 14 (42.4%) achieved stable disease (SD), and 18 (54.5%) had progressive disease (PD). The disease control rate was 45.5% and the median progression-free survival was 1.5 months (95% CI: 0.6-2.3 months). The PFS in patients who got disease control in the prior TKI was 2.2 and 1.2 months in the progression disease cases (P=0.29), the DCR was 54.5% and 27.3% in two group, respectively (P=0.26).

Conclusions: Re-administration of TKI seems to be a potential therapeutic option for treatment of selected advanced NSCLC patients after failure of gefitinib or erlotinib, especially for the patients with NSCLC who once responded from the prior TKI treatment.

Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); efficacy; erlotinib; gefitinib; retreatment.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chest CT scan of a patient who had a PR with retreatment of erlotinib. A. Chest CT scan before treatment with erlotinib; B. Chest CT scan 2 months after treatment with erlotinib; C. Chest CT scan before retreatment with erlotinib; D. Chest CT scan after retreatment with 2 months of erlotinib.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The retreatment PFS in patients who got disease control in the prior TKI and in the initial PD group (P=0.29).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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