Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement lung cancer responds to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors. It is known that many cases ultimately acquired resistance to crizotinib. However, a case of primary resistance is rare. We present a case of harboring exon 19 deletion in epidermal growth factor receptor in ALK rearranged lung adenocarcinoma, who experienced a partial tumor response to icotinib after failure with crizotinib therapy and chemotherapy. Considering the partial response, we conclude that it is important to find the cause of resistance to crizotinib. We detected gene mutations with plasma by the next-generation sequencing; the next-generation sequencing demonstrates an attractive system to identify mutations improving the outcome of patients with a deadly disease.
Keywords: anaplastic lymphoma kinase; crizotinib; epidermal growth factor receptor; non-small cell lung cancer.