Clinical Developments for the EGFR-TKI Combined with Radiotherapy in Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumor in the world, severely threatening human life. Recently, targeted therapy such as the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) made huge progress in treatment of lung cancer. EGFR-TKIs, with its high selectivity and low toxicity, is the first choice for EGFR-mutated patients in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, secondary drug resistance becomes a clinical problem to be urgently resolved. In recent years, a series of preclinical studies showed that EGFR-TKI can enhance the antitumor activity of ionizing radiation. Therefore, EGFR-TKI combined with radiation is extremely promising therapy pattern for advanced NSCLC. This review will discuss the research status in EGFR-TKI and radiotherapy for advanced NSCLC.

Keywords

• EGFR-TKI
• Radiotherapy
• Lung neoplasms