Treatment of Patients With Non-small-cell Lung Cancer With Uncommon EGFR Mutations in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Background/aim: To describe real clinical outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have uncommon epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.

Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective chart review from 15 medical institutes that cover a population of three million people from April 2008 to March 2019.

Results: There were 102 patients with uncommon EGFR mutation. Progression-free survival (PFS) tended to be longer in patients receiving afatinib compared with first-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. PFS in patients treated with afatinib or osimertinib was significantly longer than in patients treated with gefitinib or erlotinib (p=0.030). Multivariate analysis also revealed the contribution of afatinib or osimertinib to increased survival. In patients with exon 20 insertions, chemotherapy was efficacious.

Conclusion: In treating patients with uncommon EGFR mutations, our results indicate longer-term survival might be achieved with second-generation or later TKIs and cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs.

Keywords: Clinical practice; EGFR; epidermal growth factor receptor; non-small cell lung cancer; uncommon mutation.