International Medical Case Reports Journal (May 2017)

Extraordinary and prolonged Erlotinib-induced clinical response in a patient with EGFR wild-type squamous lung cancer in third-line therapy: a case report

  • Gambale E,
  • Carella C,
  • Amerio P,
  • Buttitta F,
  • Patea RL,
  • Natoli C,
  • De Tursi M

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 10
pp. 173 – 175

Abstract

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Elisabetta Gambale,1 Consiglia Carella,1 Paolo Amerio,2 Fiamma Buttitta,3 Rosa Lucia Patea,4 Clara Natoli,1 Michele De Tursi1 1Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, 2Department of Dermatology and Venereology, University G. d’Annunzio, Chieti, 3Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, 4Department of Radiologic Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy Abstract: Several small molecules, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as gefitinib, erlotinib and afatinib, have been demonstrated to significantly improve clinical outcomes in patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but erlotinib activity in EGFR wild-type squamous carcinoma is still highly debated. Here, we describe a prolonged and unexpected clinical response to erlotinib in a male former heavy cigarette smoker with wild-type EGFR squamous-cell cancer. Keywords: erlotinib, squamous NSCLC, EGFR wild type

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