Rationale:
For advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), targeted therapy and chemoradiotherapy are recommended as the first-line treatment. For patients with a performance status (PS) score over 2 and without gene mutation, however, only supportive treatment is provided and survival time is extremely short. We believe that more can be done to improve the patient's survival time and their quality of life.
Patient concerns and diagnoses:
A 65-year-old female came to our hospital due to "cough and pain and lack of movement in the left leg". The diagnosis was advanced wild gene-type lung adenocarcinoma and PS score over 2.
Interventions and outcomes:
She was treated in our clinic with apatinib and erlotinib and has had no progression of the disease for 15.4 months. Except for the presence of hand-foot syndrome and diarrhea, no other serious adverse reactions were seen.
Lessons:
For patients in poor physical condition and unacceptable of chemo-radiotherapy, apatinib combined with an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) is a safe and effective therapeutic method for advanced wild gene-type NCSCL.