Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer (Mar 2019)

Association between the HER2 Gene Status and the Efficacy of First-line Pemetrexed Combined with Platinum Chemotherapy in Patients with Advanced Lung 
Adenocarcinoma

  • Panhua LI,
  • Banban LI,
  • Yunshu SHI,
  • Fengming ZHANG,
  • Shujing SHEN,
  • Xingya LI

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3779/j.issn.1009-3419.2019.03.03
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 3
pp. 137 – 142

Abstract

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Background and objective Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is one of the driver genes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Several studies have shown that the efficacy of pemetrexed in HER2-mutant NSCLC is controversial. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of pemetrexed combined with platinum chemotherapy in patients with HER2-mutant and HER2 wild-type lung adenocarcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 106 cases of EGFR, ALK, ROS-1, KRAS, BRAF, RET and MET-negative patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients who diagnosed by histopathology in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were retrospectively reviewed. The relationships between HER2 gene status, clinical characteristics and response and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed. Results All of the 106 patients’ HER2 status were determined. HER2 mutations occurred in 32 cases (30.2%), no mutations in 74 cases (69.8%). HER2 mutations were common in young, non-smoking and female patients. All patients received first-line pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy. The objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) of patients with HER2-mutant lung adenocarcinoma were significantly higher than those without HER2 mutations (40.6% vs 14.9%, χ2=8.464, P=0.004; 93.8% vs 68.9%, χ2=6.327, P=0.012), and the difference was statistically significant. According to univariate analysis, the PFS was significantly associated with the brain metastases, maintenance chemotherapy and HER2 gene status (P0.05). Cox multivariate analysis indicated that HER2 mutation was an independent positive prognostic factor of PFS (P=0.038). Conclusion HER2-mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients with first-line pemetrexed combined with platinum chemotherapy have greater clinical benefit than HER2 wild-type patients.

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