ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival outcome in patients with advanced and previously treated non-small cell lung cancer given gefitinib (GEF) at our institution. We reviewed the clinical records of 70 Japanese patients,among whom 33 received several chemotherapy treatment modalities including GEF monotherapy (GEF group), and the other 37 were given several chemotherapy treatment modalities without GEF monotherapy (non-GEF group). The median survival time (MST) after second-line chemotherapy in the GEF group was 527 days with 1-year and 2-year survival rates of 59% and 26%, respectively. The MST in the non-GEF group was 175 days with 1-year and 2-year survival rates of 21% and 16%, respectively. Overall survival after second-line chemotherapy in the GEF group was significantly longer than in the non-GEF group (hazard ratio 1.93; 95% confidence interval 1.15-3.53, p=0.014). In our limited clinical experience, chemotherapy treatment including GEF monotherapy appeared to have longer survival than non-GEF treatment.
