title: Three generations of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors developed to revolutionize the therapy of lung cancer.
abstract: Lung cancer, ~80%-85% of which is non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Sensitizing mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene (EGFRm+), such as exon 19 deletions and exon 21 L858R point mutations, are the most important drivers in NSCLC patients. In this respect, small-molecule EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been designed and developed, which launched the era of targeted, personalized and precise medicine for lung cancer. Patients withEGFRm+could achieve good responses to the treatment with the first-generation EGFR TKIs, such as erlotinib and gefitinib. However, most patients develop acquired drug resistance mostly driven by the T790M mutation occurring within exon 20. Although the second-generation EGFR TKIs, such as afatinib, dacomitinib and neratinib, demonstrated promising activity against T790M in preclinical models, they have failed to overcome resistance in patients due to dose-limiting toxicity. Recently, the third-generation EGFR TKIs have shown to be effective against cell lines and murine models harboring T790M mutations while sparing wild-type EGFR, which represents a promising breakthrough approach in overcoming T790M-mediated resistance in NSCLC patients. This article provides a comprehensive review of the therapy revolution for NSCLC with three generations of EGFR TKIs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongda Hospital, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Haijun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015195:Drug Design; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009154:Mutation; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; C512478:EGFR protein, human; D066246:ErbB Receptors
keywords: T790M mutation; epidermal growth factor receptor; lung cancer; tyrosine kinase inhibitors