2Department of Medical Oncology, Marmara University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul-Turkey
3Department of Pathology, Marmara University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2020.2207 OBJECTIVE
This study aims to evaluate the predictive impacts of cigarette smoking on treatment outcomes of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients with activating EGFR mutations.
METHODS
We retrospectively evaluated the data of 46 patients with metastatic NSCLC (adenocarcinoma) and
EGFR mutation (exon 19 deletion, exon 21 mutation, and exon 18 activating mutation) treated with
EGFR-TKI between 2012 and 2017.
RESULTS
Median age was 61 (range 30-80), and 56.5% (26/46) was female. Median follow-up was 39 months. The
rate of smoking was 41.3% (19/46). The EGFR mutations were present in the patients, exon 19 deletion
in 29 patients (64%), exon 21 mutation in 13 patients (28%) and exon 18 activating mutations in four
patients (8%). Progression-free survival (PFS) was 21 months in smokers, whereas it was 25 months in
non-smokers (p=0.330). Median PFS was 21 months for patients using EGFR TKI in the first-line (35
patients), and 13 months in the second-line setting (11 patients).
CONCLUSION
There were no statistically significant PFS differences between the smoker and non-smoker groups.
Smokers should be tested for EGFR mutations, as some patients may benefit from EGFR TKI treatment
for longer than reported in the literature.