ZD1839 for the treatment of heavily pretreated non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

7341 Background: To evaluate the efficacy of ZD 1839 (Iressa) in terms of response rate, time to progression (TTP), and overall survival (OS) time for heavily pretreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Patients had either stage IIIB or IV NSCLC for which they had received at least 1cycle chemotherapy regimen or radiotherapy received ZD1839 at a daily dose of 250 mg until disease progression. Results: From July 2001 to Oct. 2003, 44 patients were enrolled onto the study. The patient characteristic was male : female = 36 : 8; Adenocarcinoma : Squamous : other = 35: 7: 2 and stage 4 : 3=37: 7. Median chemotherapy cycles was 5 cycles and median follow-up time = 13.5 months. The overall disease control rate was 86.4% (completely response [CR], 11.3%; partial response [PR], 43.2%; stable disease [SD], 29.5%), median TTP was 5 months, 1-year survival 37.2% and median OS was 203 days. Median symptom improvement was 9 days. The most failure was brain metastasis in death cases (9/24, 37.5%). There were no significant differences between the male and female in rates of symptom improvement, TTP and survival. Most frequent side effects were rash and diarrhea that were well-tolerated. Conclusions: According to these data, ZD1839, a well-tolerated oral EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, had a good efficacy, toxicity, and symptom outcome in patients with heavily pretreated NSCLC. No significant financial relationships to disclose.