Acta Academiae Medicinae Sinica

Abstract: ABSTRACT:Objective To explore the efficacy and safety of erlotinib monotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Totally 50 patients with advanced NSCLC received oral erlotinib 150 mg/d treatment, and tumor specimen in 19 patients were collected for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation tests. Median survival (MS) was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results The most common adverse events (AEs) were skin rash (96%) and diarrhea (32%). The overall survival(OS) of all patients was 21.8 months ［95% confidential interval (CI): 17.1-26.4 months］ and the median progression-free survival (PFS) of all patients was 7.0 months (95% CI: 3.9-10.1 months). EGFR mutation analysis showed gene mutation in 8 cases and wild type in 11 cases. The objective response rate in patients with or without EGFR gene mutations were 62.5% and 9.1%, respectively (χ2=6.631, P=0.036). PFS in patients with or without EGFR gene mutations were 16.330 (95% CI: 2.803-29.857 months) and 5.570 months (95% CI: 2.441-8.699 months), respectively (χ2=8.799, P=0.003). Conclusion Erlotinib monotherapy is safe and effective for some Chinese NSCLC patients after failure of prior chemotherapy.

Key words: non-small cell lunc cancer, erlotinib, epidermal crowtd factor receptor cene mutation