title: Gefitinib maintenance therapy in Chinese advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma patients with EGFR mutations treated with prior chemotherapy.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the response of advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with or without EGFR mutations to platinum-based chemotherapy with or without gefitinib maintenance. Patients were treated with four cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients with wild-type EGFR were observed (group 1; n=15). EGFR mutation-positive patients were randomly assigned to observation (group 2; n=7) or gefitinib maintenance (group 3; n=7). The median patient age was 59 years. The 1-year progression-free survival rates in groups 1, 2, and 3 were 6.7%, 28.6%, and 57.1%, respectively (p = 0.049); the 1-year overall survival rates were 53.3%, 57.1 %, and 100%, respectively (p = 0.111). The results indicate that patients with advanced-stage NSCLC with EGFR mutations have a better response to chemotherapy followed by gefitinib than chemotherapy alone and a better response to chemotherapy than wild-type patients.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  chemotherapy, gefitinib, NSCLC, tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Z L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Zhang