PURPOSE The ISTANA (IRESSA as Second-line Therapy in Advanced NSCLC-KoreA) study compared gefitinib with docetaxel in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) pretreated with platinum-based chemotherapy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label phase III trial of gefitinib (250 mg/d) versus docetaxel (75 mg/m(2) day 1 every 3 wee...

PURPOSE To characterize the radiation-enhancing effects and underlying mechanisms of combined treatment with celecoxib, a cyclooxygenase-2 selective inhibitor, and gefitinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in human lung cancer cells. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Clonogenic cytotoxicity assays and clonogenic radiation survival assays after treatments with celecoxi...

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is considered an important therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer, but it is currently impossible to identify those patients who are most likely to benefit from EGFR-directed therapy. We examined the biological effects of the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib (ZD1839, Iressa) in a panel of nine human pancreatic cancer cell lines. The drug stro...

BACKGROUND The use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKis) during pregnancy in humans remains rare, and little data are available on their transplacental passage. Erlotinib and gefitinib are the first-line targeted therapy in case of stage IV nonsmall-cell lung cancer with an EGFR-activating mutation. There are no data available regarding the comparative use of these TKis in pregnant patients. We ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), an aberrant prothrombin produced by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, is known as a marker for HCC. Recent studies indicated that high levels of DCP are associated with the malignant potential of HCC. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of DCP with gefitinib treatment failure in HCC and whether DCP counteracts gefitinib...

Brain metastasis is an increasing problem in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), including gefitinib, erlotinib, and icotinib, are reported to be effective in patients with brain metastases. However, direct comparative studies of the pharmacokinetics and efficacy of these three drugs in treating brain metastases are lacking. In the present investigati...

PURPOSE Malignant rhabdoid tumor (MRT) is a rare and highly aggressive neoplasm of young children. Current treatments have had only limited success. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was found recently to be expressed on MRT cell lines. Gefitinib (trade name Iressa) is an oral and selective EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor and has been demonstrated to be effective in inhibiting the prolifer...

We present a case of multiple primary lung cancer(MPLC) displaying heterogeneous EGFR and PTEN molecular profiles. Considering the physical condition of patients, the patient underwent surgical resection of the right lung lesion displaying gefitinib-insensitive and continued gefitinib treatment for the gefitinib-sensitive lesions in the left lung. As far as we know, this is the first report doc...

BACKGROUND Both gefitinib and erlotinib are reversible epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, but they have somewhat different pharmacological properties. We conducted a phase II study of erlotinib after failure of gefitinib treatment in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with advanced/metastatic NSCLC who had shown disease pr...

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation is a favorable prognostic factor of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the majority of patients with EGFR mutations, clinical benefits of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been reported. One of the TKIs, gefitinib, appears to be less toxic to the skin than other TKIs. The present study reports a case of NSCLC with EGFR mutation (exo...