Efficacy of gefitinib or erlotinib in patients with squamous cell lung cancer

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) and EGFR mutation frequency in advanced squamous cell lung cancer based on the data from our hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The clinical data of 102 patients with advanced squamous cell lung cancer who were admitted to Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2007 to December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The EGFR mutations were assessed in some of the patients using the pyrosequencing assay. RESULTS: Nine patients (8.8%) showed a partial response (PR), 28 (27.5%) achieved stable disease (SD), and 65 (63.7%) had progressive disease (PD). The disease control rate was 36.3% and the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 1.93 months (95% CI: 1.57–2.29). The PFS in patients who obtained disease control in the prior TKI was 8.63 months and 1.37 months in the disease progression cases (p < 0.001). No statistical differences in PFS were observed between gefitinib and erlotinib (2.0 months vs. 1.87 months, p = 0.76). The toxicities associated with EGFR-TKI were generally acceptable. In 74 patients with adequate specimens for molecular analysis, 4 (5.4%) had EGFR mutations (2 with deletions within exon 19 and 2 with L858R mutation in exon 21). CONCLUSIONS: The EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor seems to be a potential therapeutic option for treatment of advanced squamous cell lung cancer patients. Erlotinib and gefitinib had a similar efficacy in advanced squamous cell lung cancer. The frequency of EGFR mutation was about 5.4% in our single hospital data.