title: Predictive factors in patients with EGFR mutation-negative non-small cell lung cancer treated with erlotinib.
abstract: Factors predicting the efficacy of erlotinib treatment in patients with EGFR mutation-negative non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not been well studied. This retrospective study investigates whether patient characteristics, such as site of metastasis, can predict the efficacy of erlotinib treatment in NSCLC patients. In total, 53 EGFR mutation-negative NSCLC patients treated with erlotinib were enrolled, and the associations between clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival were analyzed. The EGFR mutation status was determined using the peptide nucleic acid-locked nucleic acid polymerase chain reaction clamp method. Survival curves were obtained using the Kaplan-Meier method. Among the NSCLC patients treated with erlotinib, 27 patients with pulmonary metastasis exhibited significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) times than those without pulmonary metastasis (median PFS time, 2.9 versus 1.2 months; P=0.0010 and median OS time, 12.4 versus 4.1 months; P=0.0007). Multivariate analyses also revealed that pulmonary metastasis independently correlated with PFS and OS times (hazard ratio, 0.39; P=0.0055 and hazard ratio, 0.33; P=0.0022, respectively). Patients with pulmonary metastasis exhibited significantly longer PFS and OS times than those without pulmonary metastasis. The presence of pulmonary metastasis may be a predictive factor in patients with EGFR mutation-negative NSCLC treated with erlotinib.
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Youhei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.affiliation: Division of Respirology, Neurology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoshino
keywords: epidermal growth factor receptor mutation; erlotinib; non-small cell lung cancer; pulmonary metastasis