Lung cancer is one of the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, the most common histological type of lung cancer is non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), whose occurrence and development is closely related to the mutation and amplification of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR).
Epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) mutations are the best illustration of the therapeutic relevance of identifying such molecular clusters of lung cancer based on driver genetic alterations that predict the efficacy of specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors, a strategy referred to as "personalized medicine."
Epidermal growth factor (EGF)/DNA complexes targeted to cancer cells overexpressing the EGF receptor resulted in efficient transduction of several lung cancer cell lines in vitro.
A test to predict outcome after treatment with an epidermal growth factor rector/tyrosine kinase inhibitor and a screening blood test for lung cancer are being investigated for use in proteomic profiling.
Although the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI) erlotinib and gefitinib have shown dramatic effects against EGFR mutant lung cancer, patients become resistant by various mechanisms, including gatekeeper EGFR-T790M mutation, Met amplification, and HGF overexpression, thereafter relapsing.
Although the majority of patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer respond well to EGF receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), all patients eventually develop resistance.
Although treatment with gefitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, has been reported to be highly effective against lung cancers harboring a mutated EGF gene, its effect against carcinomatous meningitis is unknown.
As both lesions were resected, were of the same histologic subtype and presented the same immunohistochemistry profile; we decided to perform mutational analysis of the epidermal growth factor (EGFR) gene to differentiate between recurrence and second primary lung cancer.