ALK阳性非小细胞肺癌脑转移患者的治疗

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is an important subtype of lung cancer.The standard modality of ALK-positive NSCLC with brain metastases remains uncertain. METHODS: We collected data on clinical characteristics and treatment of patients with ALK-positive NSCLC and brain metastases between March 2013 and March 2016 and retrospectively analyzed patient outcomes. RESULTS: In 84 ALK-positive patients with advanced NSCLC, 22 (26.2%) had brain metastases during the initial diagnosis of lung cancer, among which 3 patients with EGFR mutation were excluded, and 19 patients were analyzed.Median intracranial progression-free survival (PFS) was 12.0 months.PFS for patients who received first-line local brain therapy (P=0.021) and crizotinib therapy (P=0.030) was superior to PFS for patients without such therapies.PFS for patients who received first-line crizotinib combined with local brain therapy was 27.0 months and only 4.2 months for those who received crizotinib alone. CONCLUSION: First-line crizotinib therapy combined with local brain treatment can improve intracranial PFS for ALK-positive NSCLC with brain metastases.This finding should be confirmed further through multicenter, prospective clinical trials with large sample size.