Regional therapy has shown promising results in patients with an oligo-metastasis after the occurrence of resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of continuing EGFR-TKI therapy concurrently with arterial infusion chemotherapy in 6 patients (median age 55.9 years) with advanced EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had a locally progressive, centrally located lung lesion after EGFR-TKI therapy. The patients received a super-selective arterial infusion of docetaxel (75 mg/m(2)) every 28 days concurrently with EGFR-TKI therapy until further progressive disease (PD) or unacceptable adverse effects (AEs) occurred. Treatment outcomes were assessed via progression-free survival (PFS) times (PFS-1: time to PD after EGFR-TKI therapy; PFS-2: time to further PD after arterial infusion chemotherapy with EGFR-TKI therapy), the occurrence of treatment-related AEs, and patient responses to the QLQ-LC13 quality-of-life questionnaire. Three of the 6 patients achieved partial responses, and three had stable disease. The median PFS-1 was 10.42 months, and the median PFS-2 was 4.1 months (range, 2.1-5.7 months). The median overall survival (OS) was 28.6 months (range, 24.1-32.9 months). All AEs were either grade 1 or grade 2 in severity, and no unexpected AEs were observed. One patient died of lung cancer. The patients reported significant reductions from baseline in symptoms of cough, chest pain, dyspnea, and hemoptysis (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Thus, continuing EGFR-TKI therapy in combination with super-selective arterial infusion chemotherapy beyond PD for patients with advanced EGFR-mutant NSCLC is feasible, and this approach warrants further investigation.
Keywords: Arterial infusion chemotherapy; Docetaxel; Non-small cell lung cancer; Progressive disease; Tyrosine kinase inhibitors.