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Vol.47 No.6 contents

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- Original Article -

Re-treatment with Gefitinib for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Yukiko Kusama¹, Tomonobu Koizumi¹, Michiko Itou¹, Shintaro Kanda¹, Hiroshi Yamamoto¹, Keishi Kubo¹, Hiroshi Nomura², Seiichiro Eda³, Muneharu Hayasaka⁴, Eiichi Gomi^5
1First Department of Internal Medicine, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Japan, ²Internal Medicine, Omachi Municipal General Hospital, Japan, ³Department of Respiratory Medicine, Matsumoto Kyouritsu Hospital, Japan, ⁴Department of Respiratory Medicine, Chushin Matsumoto Hospital, Japan, ⁵Nagano Therapy Study Group of Lung Cancer, Japan

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Background. Gefitinib is an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor and has been reported to be effective in non-small cell lung cancer. Dramatic responses to gefitinib were observed in some patients with clinical factors, such as adenocarcinoma-histology, female-gender, and non-smokers. However, the efficacy of re-treatment with gefitinib after acquisition of resistance for patients who showed a favorable response to initial therapy of gefitinib remains unknown. Purpose and methods. We retrospectively analyzed patients with regard to the following criteria: 1) cases of good response to initial therapy of gefitinib, 2) cases treated with chemotherapy after acquisition of resistance to the initial gefitinib therapy, and 3) cases attempted to re-treatment with gefitinib after the chemotherapy. Results. Nine cases enrolled in the present study were all adenocarcinoma and female. The patients were initially treated with gefitinib in the 1st-4th line setting, and were re-treated with gefitinib in the 3rd-6th line setting. Three cases achieved a partial response (PR) in re-treatment with gefitinib. The objective response rate was 33.3% (95%CI, 7.5-70.1%). They also achieved a PR in initial treatment with gefitinib and the interval from the cessation to re-treatment of gefitinib ranged from 6.5 to 11 months. Overall survival time of all cases ranged from 13.5 to 50 months, with a median survival time of 24.6 months. The median survival time after re-treatment with gefitinib was 7.4 months. Conclusion. Re-treatment with gefitinib is an alternative therapy for the patients who showed a favorable response to initial gefitinib therapy.
key words: Gefitinib, Chemoresistance, Non-small cell lung cancer, Re-treatment

Received: March 22, 2007
Accepted: July 3, 2007

JJLC 47 (6): 689-694, 2007