Clinical experience on use of oral EGFR-TKIs as first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC from a tertiary care centre in North India and implications of skin rash.

BACKGROUND Limited data are available from India on treatment outcomes with oral epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We studied the demographic profile and treatment outcomes of patients with NSCLC, receiving first-line treatment with oral EGFR-TKIs. METHODS Retrospective study of newly diagnosed NSCLC patients treated with oral EGFR-TKIs over a 4-year period at a tertiary care institute in North India. RESULTS Of 76 patients studied, females and non-smokers constituted 32.9% and 48.7%, respectively. Majority of patients had adenocarcinoma (59.2%), stage IV (64.5%) disease and Karnofsky performance status ≤ 70 (74.5%). Gefitinib was the most frequently used EGFR-TKI (92.1%). Most common indication for the use of EGFR-TKIs was poor performance status (65.8%). Among assessable patients, disease control and progressive disease were evident in 66% and 34%, respectively. Most common side effects were skin rash (17%) and diarrhoea (10.6%). Patients with and without skin rash differed significantly in relation to objective response to treatment (100% versus 23.1%) and overall survival (median not reached versus 178 days). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, malignant pleural effusion was associated with occurrence of rash (odds ratio = 0.19; 95% confidence interval = 0.04-0.95; p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Oral EGFR-TKIs appear to be useful for the treatment of clinically selected patients with advanced NSCLC. Occurrence of skin rash was independently associated with treatment response and better survival in the current study.