A phase II trial of erlotinib monotherapy for pretreated elderly patients with advanced EGFR wild-type non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Erlotinib is an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which is an effective treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially those harboring activating EGFR mutations. A previous phase III trial suggested that patients with EGFR wild-type (EGFR-wt) NSCLC or elderly patients with disease progression after cytotoxic chemotherapy might benefit from erlotinib monotherapy. However, few studies have prospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of second- or third-line erlotinib monotherapy for elderly patients with EGFR-wt advanced or recurrent NSCLC.