Adverse Event Profiles of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Adenocarcinoma Lung Patients in North Sumatera Population

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In early 2000, a new targeted therapy was introduced and appeared to be a medical revolution due to the great emergence of procedural treatments in lung cancers. This new target therapy has been developed recently, which is also accompanied by the development of molecular markers as medical guidance. AIM: This study aims to assess the side effect of the usage of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) on lung adenocarcinoma patients in North Sumatera. METHODS: This study was a descriptive analysis study with consecutive sampling. Data was collected from the medical records of 50 pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients who have been treated by EGFR-TKI erlotinib and gefitinib. The statistical analysis was performed through SPSS software. RESULTS: From this study, the majority of subjects were in the age range of 50–60 years old (24%), had no smoking history (52%), and were in Stage IVA (62%) at the time of diagnosis. Allele-specific polymerase chain reaction was performed and showed that exon 19 was found as the commonest mutations (62%). After using the first generation of EGFR-TKI including erlotinib and gefitinib, the majority of subjects experienced Grade I toxicities (46%) involved skin (acneiform). CONCLUSION: The most common adverse event that is occurred in the cases was in skin disorders (72% of cases), which is particularly indicated by acne rash (46% of cases). The degree of toxicity during the medications was populously on degree 1 (46% of cases).