Lung cancer : journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
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To evaluate the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on survival in HIV infected patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ⋯ HAART is a good prognostic factor for survival in HIV infected patients with NSCLC. Stage of disease and PS are two other valid survival prognostic factors.
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Brain metastases (BM) represent one of the most common challenges related to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with evolving treatment strategies. We have conducted a phase II clinical trial in a Chinese population to evaluate concomitant treatment with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and Gefitinib in patients with BM from NSCLC. The purpose of this study is to report the efficacy and toxicity of this treatment, and assess its impact on patient Quality of Life (QoL) and survival post-treatment. ⋯ Our data suggests that concomitant treatment was well tolerated, with promising activity and a significant improvement of QoL in a Chinese population with brain metastases from NSCLC. Although the data presented herewithin appears promising, more data from randomized trials are needed to further validate this regimen of WBRT/Gefitinib.
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(18)F-FDG PET/CT has been used to differentiate malignant solid lung nodules from benign nodules. We assess the feasibility of integrated (18)F-FDG PET/CT for the differentiation of malignancy from inflammation manifested as ground-glass nodules (GGNs) on chest CT. ⋯ The part-solid nodules with positive FDG-PET could be inflammatory nodules rather than malignant nodules. This is a quite paradoxical result when considering the basic knowledge that malignant pulmonary nodules have higher glucose metabolism.
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EGFR (ErbB1) and ErbB2 receptors stimulate several intracellular signaling pathways in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Adenocarcinomas (AC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) are NSCLC subtypes with distinct clinico-pathological features, and responses to ErbB-targeted inhibitors treatment. To evaluate the causes of these differences, tissue microarrays with samples from NSCLC patients (189 AC and 56 SCC) were used to study EGFR and ErbB2 expression and phospho-activation of ERK1/2, AKT, STAT3 and SRC ErbB-mediators by immunohistochemistry and Western blot, and EGFR and ErbB2 gene amplification by FISH. ⋯ In AC, EGFR and pSRC increasing scores correlated with female sex and the smoking habit (P< or =0.008), while ErbB2 amplification increased with advanced age and tumor stage (P< or =0.047), and pERK1/2 and pSTAT3 levels correlated with early tumor stage (P< or =0.045). In SCC, EGFR amplification was stronger in younger patients (P=0.013), pERK1/2 in the older ones (P=0.050), and pSTAT3 amplification was stronger in women (P=0.001). These data support that AC and SCC lung tumors are distinct entities at the molecular level, and that their signaling status in combination with their clinico-pathologic variables may be considered for differential targeted therapies.
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The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the beneficial effect of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in the treatment of leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) for a select group of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who had a sensitive EGFR mutation or good predictive clinical factors for EGFR TKI treatment. Eleven patients with NSCLC and LM were treated with a standard dose of erlotinib (n=9), or higher than standard dose of gefitinib followed by erlotinib (n=2). They were treated with various therapies including whole brain radiotherapy or intrathecal chemotherapy for CNS lesion previously and concurrently with EGFR TKI. ⋯ Two patients showed responses to higher than standard dose of gefitinib. The median overall survival was not reached. In conclusion, EGFR TKIs are effective in the treatment of LM from NSCLC when patients were selected properly.