Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) have been widely used in the treatment of the advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in the adenocarcinoma patients with activating EGFR mutations. But there is no published overview of the following treatment. This report through observing the efficacy, toxicity and overall survival of different treatments to the advanced NSCLC patients who had gradual progression after EGFR-TKIs, evaluates the influence of the continued treatment and switching chemotherapy. METHODS: Retrospective review is conducted on 32 cases of advanced NSCLC patients who experienced treatment failure of EGFR-TKIs. One group accepted the continued treatment and the other group accepted the switching chemotherapy. RESULTS: The median overall survival of the continued treatment group is 36.0 months. The respose rate of the switching chemotherapy group is 43.75%, and clinical benefit rate (complete and partial response and stable disease) is 87.5%. The median overall survival is 15.5 months. The main toxicities are nausea, vomiting and hematological toxicities. CONCLUSION: For the advanced NSCLC patients who had gradual progression after EGFR-TKIs, the continued treatment is one of the acceptable choices.