Response to first-line chemotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer according to epidermal growth factor receptor and K-RAS mutation status.

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapy has shown a favorable efficacy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Conversely, K-RAS mutations were reported to have an adverse effect on the survival of patients with NSCLC. These studies suggest that the tumor biology of patients with EGFR or K-RAS mutations is different from that of patients with wild-type mutations. Therefore, we hypothesized that the response to cytotoxic chemotherapy may differ among patients with and without EGFR or K-RAS mutations.

Methods: A total of 229 patients with advanced NSCLC who received platinum doublet chemotherapy were included in this retrospective study, and their clinical outcomes were analyzed according to EGFR and K-RAS mutation status.

Results: EGFR and K-RAS mutations were found in 52.4% and 27.9% of patients, respectively. Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly higher in patients with EGFR mutations than in patients with wild-type EGFR (P = .008), and multivariate analysis showed that EGFR mutation was an independent factor to chemotherapy (P = .01). Among the patients with EGFR mutations, the disease control rate for docetaxel was higher than for gemcitabine-based therapy (P = .031). In addition, docetaxel or vinorelbine showed a longer PFS than gemcitabine-based chemotherapy in patients with EGFR mutations (P = .033 and P = .028). However, no similar differences were found according to the K-RAS mutations.

Conclusions: EGFR, but not K-RAS mutation, is associated with improved survival time to platinum-based chemotherapy. In patients with EGFR mutations, PFS for docetaxel and gemcitabine was higher than for vinorelbine-based chemotherapies. The predictive meaning of EGFR mutation for chemotherapy should be further investigated.