Efficacy of cisplatin/pemetrexed with bevacizumab to treat advanced lung adenocarcinoma with different drive genes: case report and literature review

BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy has become the first-line therapy in advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, few studies have focused on cisplatin/pemetrexed with bevacizumab as the first-line therapy to treat advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. Importantly, whether the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements can influence the efficacy of bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy is very interesting. Herein, we report three cases with different types of gene drives in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. CASE PRESENTATION: In the first case, a patient presented with wild-type EGFR and negative ALK rearrangement. In the second case, a patient presented with wild-type EGFR and positive ALK rearrangement. In the third case, a patient presented with negative ALK rearrangement and mutated EGFR in exon 19. CONCLUSION: We speculate that bevacizumab in combination with cisplatin/pemetrexed as the first-line therapy is well tolerated and results in a clinically meaningful treatment benefit, irrespective of the gene drive type in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. However, more data are needed to confirm the relationship.