Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are the standard of care for non-small cell lung cancer patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation. The efficacy of TKIs and prognosis of EGFR-mutated patients with compound EGFR mutation, oncogene mutation, suppresser gene mutation or other diver gene mutation are worse than those of patients with a single EGFR mutation. This article makes a review of related clinical researches aiming to provide references for clinical scenarios. To sum up, molecular alterations and clinical features should be correlated as accurately and dynamically as possible in the diagnostic and therapeutic process, and combined therapeutic strategies should be chosen flexibly and reasonably to improve patients’ survival and prognosis.
ObjectiveTo improve clinicians' knowledge of hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP).
MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 24 HP patients who were diagnosed in the Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School during February 2005 to February 2013. The clinical,radiological and pathological features of those patients were summarized.
ResultsAmong those 24 patients,15 were male and 9 were female,with mean age of (48±13) years. All patients had a history of environmental exposure. Two patients showed acute clinical manifestations,and there were 17 subacute and 5 chronic cases. The main clinical manifestations were dyspnea,cough,sputum,fever and weight loss with hypoxemia via blood gas analysis. Restrictive ventilatory impairment was the most frequent functional pattern,and the carbon monoxide diffusing capacity was decreased. Pulmonary function test showed restrictive ventilatory defect and gas interchange disturbance. The features of chest HRCT included diffuse ground-glass attenuation and/or patchy consolidation,centrilobular micronodules,mosaic sign,reticular and/or honeycombing lesions. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) demonstrated an increase of total cell counts with predominant lymphocytosis. The transbronchoscopic lung biopsy (TBLB) pathological examination revealed lymphocytic alveolitis,noncaseating granuloma,and interstial pneumonia. All patients were treated by corticosteroid and avoided antigen exposure and showed significant clinical and radiological improvement.
ConclusionThe diagnosis of HP is difficult. In most cases (acute and subacute HP),a diagnosis can be made by combination history of exposure,chest HRCT manifestations,cell classification of BALF and pathological examination of TBLB. For atypical cases (chronic HP),a surgery lung biopsy is needed for multi-disciplinary diagnosis including pathologist,radiologist and pulmonologists.
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.
