Better to be alone than in bad company: The antagonistic effect of cisplatin and crizotinib combination therapy in non-small cell lung cancer

AIM: To investigate the potential benefit of combining the cMET inhibitor crizotinib and cisplatin we performed in vitro combination studies. METHODS: We tested three different treatment schemes in four non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines with a different cMET/epidermal growth factor receptor genetic background by means of the sulforhodamine B assay and performed analysis with Calcusyn. RESULTS: All treatment schemes showed an antagonistic effect in all cell lines, independent of the cMET status. Despite their different genetic backgrounds, all cell lines (EBC-1, HCC827, H1975 and LUDLU-1) showed antagonistic combination indexes ranging from 1.3-2.7. These results were independent of the treatment schedule. CONCLUSION: These results discourage further efforts to combine cMET inhibition with cisplatin chemotherapy in NSCLC.