Abstract
BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) are one of the effective medicines in advanced lung adenocarcinoma leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) treatment in recent years. METHODS: This paper reports two cases of advanced lung adenocarcinoma with exon-EGFR19 mutation. LM occurred during gefitinib treatment with an extracranial condition under control. Later, erlotinib was adopted with a recurrent response. RESULTS: The progression free survival of both patients was over six months and their LM was under control for six and a half and nine months, respectively. LM may be sensitive on different levels to different EGFR-TKIs. CONCLUSION: Erlotinib can be used to replace gefitinib if intracranial tumor progress occurs during gefitinib treatment. However, our conclusion still needs to be proven by further clinical research.