The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) erlotinib has been shown to improve the outcomes of patients with advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), although effectiveness in the neoadjuvant setting is less well established. In a single-arm phase II trial, 19 patients with stage IIIA–N2 EGFR-mutated NSCLC received erlotinib for 56 days before surgery. A total of 14 patients underwent surgery, of which 13 (68.4%) underwent radical resection, which was the primary end point of the trial. The majority of patients (17/19) achieved disease control, with a median disease-free survival duration of 11.2 months and an overall survival duration of 51.6 months from the start of neoadjuvant therapy. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the use of TKIs in the neoadjuvant setting in patients with NSCLCs harbouring EGFR alterations.
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Xiong, L. et al. Erlotinib as neoadjuvant therapy in stage IIIA (N2) EGFR mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer: a prospective, single-arm, phase II study. Oncologist https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2018-0120 (2018)
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Sidaway, P. Erlotinib effective in the neoadjuvant setting. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 15, 654 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-018-0099-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-018-0099-7