Erlotinib combined with chemotherapy in treatment of advanced squamous cell lung cancer: a clinical analysis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of erlotinib combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced squamous cell lung cancer. Methods Sixty patients with advanced squamous cell lung cancer hospitalized in our department between January 2011 and December 2012 were included as the subjects in the study. All patients were randomly divided into the conventional chemotherapy group (n=30) and the erlotinib and chemotherapy group (n=30). The conventional chemotherapy group received conventional chemotherapy with carboplatin and gemcitabine. The erlotinib and chemotherapy group received erlotinib in combination with conventional chemotherapy. The incidence of adverse reactions was recorded during the treatment. At 10 months after the treatment, the effects of the two groups were evaluated. Results At 10 months after the treatment, the evaluation on the effects in the two groups of patients showed that there were 2 patients with complete remission (CR) , 5 with partial remission (PR) , 14 with stable disease (SD) and 9 with progressive disease (PD) in the conventional chemotherapy group, and 4 CR, 11 PR, 12 SD and 3 PD in the erlotinib and chemotherapy group. The effective rate in the erlotinib and chemotherapy group and the conventional chemotherapy group was 50.0% (15/30) and 23.3% (7/30) , respectively, with statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ2=7.456, P=0.024). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (all P> 0.05). Conclusion Erlotinib combined with chemotherapy can improve the clinical effect in the treatment of advanced squamous cell lung cancer. Key words: Erlotinib; Squamous cell lung cancer; Antineoplastic combined chemotherapy protocols; Treatment outcome