Biological and clinical implications of EGFR mutations in lung cancer

摘要

Patients with non-small-cell lung cancer sometimes show a dramatic clinical response to gefitinib or erlotinib, small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) specific for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). However, until April 2004, it was unclear how to identify patients who would benefit from these drugs. Then, two groups from Boston reported that EGFR gene mutations in the kinase domain are strongly associated with gefitinib sensitivity. EGFR mutations are more frequent in Asians, females, nonsmokers, and adenocarcinomas than in their counterparts. These populations precisely coincide with those populations with higher response rates to TKIs. We and others subsequently confirmed and extended these findings.