Clinical case of long-term disease control in a patient with EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths both in Russia and worldwide, it is often diagnosed at a late stage and the median survival with traditional first-line chemotherapy platinum-based regimens does not exceed one year. The discovery of activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene offered first opportunity for personalized treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Currently, molecular testing for patients with advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma is a routine activity, the use of targeted agents has become the standard of the 1st line of therapy, the treatment strategy after disease progression based not only on the RECIST radiological criteria, but also on the dynamics of clinical symptoms and the identification of a possible mechanism of resistance. The clinical case below demonstrates safe and long-term control of the disease in patient receiving target agents treatment, features of evaluation the effectiveness of the treatment, and also illustrates the advantages of the strategy of continued therapy with asymptomatic progression of the disease.