Clinical Case · Kasuistik

Erlotinib in Patients with Previously Irradiated, Recurrent Brain Metastases from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Two Case Reports
Joachim von Pawel^a, Horst Wagner^a, Thomas Duell^a, Barbara Poellinger<sup>b

a</sup> Klinik für Pneumologie, Asklepios-Fachkliniken München-Gauting,
^bKlinik für Strahlentherapie und Radioonkologie, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Germany

Address of Corresponding Author

Onkologie 2008;31:123-126 (DOI: 10.1159/000113928)

  Key Words

• NSCLC
• EGFR inhibition
• Erlotinib
• Brain metastases

  Summary

Background: With the current improvements in primary lung care, the long-term control of brain metastases becomes a clinical challenge. No established therapeutic approaches exist for cranial relapse after response to previous radiotherapy and systemic therapy. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors like erlotinib with its proven activity in non-small cell lung cancer may provide clinical benefits in such patients. Patients and Methods: Two case reports are presented illustrating the efficacy of erlotinib in patients with recurrent brain metastases and parallel thoracic progression. Results: Both patients showed lasting partial remissions in the brain and lung, and clinical symptom improvement. Conclusion: The observed survival times of above 18 and 15 months, respectively, since occurrence of cranial disease manifestation in line with the achieved progression-free survival times of 9 and 6 months by the erlotinib third-line therapy are remarkable. The use of targeted therapies after wholebrain irradiation should be investigated more systematically in prospective clinical trials.

Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Dr. Joachim von Pawel, Asklepios-Fachkliniken München-Gauting, 82131 Gauting, Germany, Tel. +49 89 85791-2011, Fax -2011, E-mail j.pawel@asklepios.com

  Article Information

Published online: February 20, 2008
Number of Print Pages : 4
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 0, Number of References : 17