The incidence and mortality of esophageal cancer in China rank the fifth and fourth, respectively, with squamous carcinoma accounting for more than 90%. Currently, the treatment of esophageal squamous carcinoma mainly includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endoscopic treatment. However, the 5-year survival rate is only about 20%. At present, the treatment of esophageal squamous carcinoma seems to reach a plateau. Thus, it is urgent to develop new and more effective drugs and treatments. In this paper, the clinical research progresses of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)- targeted therapy of esophageal squamous carcinomas were summarized, including anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies, such as cetuximab and nimotuzumab, and EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, such as gefitinib, erlotinib, and ecclinib.
ObjectiveTo explore the therapeutic efficacy of crizotinib for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 31 ALK-positive NSCLC patients who received crizotinib treatment between November 2012 and May 2014 in the Department of Thoracic Oncology of West China Hospital. The median age of the patients was 51 years old, and the percentage of male and female patients was 45.2% and 54.8%, respectively. Among them, 74.2% were non-smokers, 74.2% had an ECOG performance status of 0-2. Histologically, adenocarcinoma was the highest proportion of 96.8%, and one (3.2%) patient had large cell carcinoma. Fifteen (48.4%) ALK-positive patients were given crizotinib in the first-line setting, and 16 (51.6%) accepted crizotinib in the second-line and beyond. ResultsThe objective response rate (ORR) of the patients treated with crizotinib was 61.3%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 90.3%. The median progression-free survival (time) was 10.0 months [(95% CI (2.9, 17.0) months]. The difference of ORR and DCR between the patients given crizotinib in the first-line setting and the patients given crizotinib in the second-line or beyond was not statistically significant (P=0.716 and P=0.600, respectively). The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were increased aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (64.5%), nausea and vomiting (35.5%), leukopenia (16.7%), vision disorder (16.1%), edema (12.9%), and diarrhea (12.9%), and most toxicities were grade 1 and 2. ConclusionThis study shows that crizotinib can increase the objective response rate and disease control rate, prolong progression-free survival time in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small-cell lung cancer. Crizotinib has relative fewer side effects and can be tolerated by the patients.
Objective To investigate the clinical features of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with long-term survival and the related factors for treatment. Methods A retrospective analysis of clinical features, treatment factors, and survival was performed for 963 patients with pathologically confirmed stage Ⅳ NSCLC between January 2010 and December 2015 from Department of Thoracic Oncology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Results The median overall survival (OS) of the 963 patients was 20.8 months, and the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year survival rates were 72.0%, 21.4%, 15.2%, and 4.8%, respectively. There were 81 patients in the long-term survival group (OS>60 months) and 882 in the non-long-term survival group (OS<60 months). Previous surgery, thoracic radiotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene positive significantly increased the 5-year actual survival rate, reducing the risk of death by 62.0%, 58.8%, and 58.1%, respectively. Compared with the non-long-term survival group, more patients in the long-term survival group received two or more means of treatment including surgery, thoracic radiotherapy, and targeted therapy (28.4% vs. 11.6%, P<0.001) and more patients benefited from fourth- or further-line treatment (24.7%vs. 11.1%, P<0.001). Cox multivariate regression analysis indicated that performance status [hazard ratio (HR)=1.388, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.199, 1.608), P<0.001] , N stage [HR=1.160, 95%CI (1.058, 1.272), P=0.002] , EGFR gene status [HR=0.588, 95%CI (0.469, 0.738), P<0.001] , previous surgery [HR=0.626, 95%CI (0.471, 0.832), P=0.001] , and thoracic radiotherapy [HR=0.592, 95%CI (0.480, 0.730), P<0.001] were independent prognostic factors of OS. Conclusions Good performance status, early N staging, EGFR mutation, previous surgery, and thoracic radiotherapy are important prognostic factors affecting the survival of advanced NSCLC patients. Long-term survival benefits from combined treatment and effective further-line therapies.