Efficacy of platinum combination chemotherapy after first-line gefitinib treatment in non-small cell lung cancer patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations.

PURPOSE: Gefitinib is an effective first-line chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations. However, whether second-line platinum combination chemotherapy after first-line gefitinib treatment shows similar effects to first-line platinum combination chemotherapy in these patients remains unclear. Therefore, we here aimed to investigate the efficacy of platinum combination chemotherapy after first-line gefitinib treatment in NSCLC patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations. METHODS/PATIENTS: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical effects of second-line platinum combination chemotherapy after first-line gefitinib treatment in NSCLC patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations (exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R mutation) at five institutions. All patients were initially treated with gefitinib (250 mg/day) followed by platinum combination chemotherapy as second-line chemotherapy. RESULTS: Between January 2006 and December 2012, 42 patients [8 men, 34 women; median age, 63 years (range 39-75 years)] were enrolled. The overall response rate, disease control rate, and median progression-free survival (PFS) were 26.2, 61.9%, and 5.1 months, respectively, after the second-line treatment. The corresponding values for first-line gefitinib treatment were 69.0, 95.2%, and 11.1 months, respectively. Moreover, second-line platinum combination chemotherapy with pemetrexed or bevacizumab-containing regimens was independently associated with improved PFS. CONCLUSIONS: Second-line platinum combination chemotherapy after first-line gefitinib treatment in NSCLC patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutations was effective and showed equivalent outcomes to first-line platinum combination chemotherapy. After failure of first-line gefitinib therapy, second-line platinum combination chemotherapy with pemetrexed or bevacizumab might result in improved PFS.

Electrophysiological and behavioral studies of taste discrimination in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum).

Electrophysiological and behavioral experiments were performed to determine whether the taste system of the aquatic salamander, axolotl, discriminates taste stimuli. Taste responses were recorded extracellularly from the glossopharyngeal nerve bundle. The behavioral responses of axolotls towards various concentrations of NaCl, KCl, citric acid, quinine-hydrochloride, and sucrose were quantified by measuring the ratio of rejection towards gel pellets, each containing either unitary stimuli or binary mixtures of these chemicals. Rejection ratios [rejection/(rejection+swallowing)] towards the unitary stimuli except sucrose increased with concentration, but were not a single function of the magnitude of neural response induced by the stimuli. Degree of rejection was different depending on the quality of taste stimuli, suggesting that information processing of taste quality occurs in axolotls. The potential of NaCl to induce positive feeding behavior (swallowing) was suggested by a reduction in the rejection ratio of quinine-tainted pellets when they were mixed with 100 mM NaCl. Differential behavioral responses to quinine and NaCl show that axolotls have the ability to discriminate the taste quality of these stimuli.