title: Efficacy of Icotinib treatment in patients with stage IIIb/IV non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Icotinib - an orally administered, highly potent selective inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its active mutations, in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 101 patients with stage IIIb/IV NSCLC were treated with 125 mg Icotinib three times a day until disease progression or intolerable toxicity. Response rate was evaluated using response evaluation criteria in solid tumors and progression-free survival (PFS) was collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were 37.6% (38/101) and 79.2% (80/101), respectively. The median PFS was 6.5 months. Multivariate analysis showed that female gender (P= 0.048, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.010-6.016) and occurrence of rash (P= 0.002, 95% CI 1.667-9.809) were the independent predictive factors for ORR, while a performance status (PS) score of 0-1 (P= 0.001, 95% CI 0.024-0.402) and rash (P= 0.042, 95% CI 1.089-76.557) were the independent predictive factors for DCR. In addition, PS scores of 0-1 (P <0.001, 95% CI 0.135-0.509), and non-smoking (P= 0.017, 95% CI 0.342-0.900) were found to be independent influencing factors for PFS. Moreover, patients with EGFR mutations had better PFS than patients with wild type EGFR, while patients with EGFR exon 19 deletion had better survival than those with EGFR exon 21 mutation. The most common adverse effects of Icotinib were rash (35.6%) and diarrhea (17.8%), which was tolerable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Treatment of stage IIIb/IV NSCLC patients with Icotinib was effective and tolerable, specifically in patients with EGFR mutation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xinjie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jialin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jinghui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shucai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: EGFR mutation; Icotinib; non-small cell lung cancer; targeted therapy