Background: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is an important subtype of lung cancer. The standard modality of ALK-positive NSCLC with brain metastases remains uncertain.
Methods: We collected data on clinical characteristics and treatment of patients with ALK-positive NSCLC and brain metastases between March 2013 and March 2016 and retrospectively analyzed patient outcomes.
Results: In 84 ALK-positive patients with advanced NSCLC, 22 (26.2%) had brain metastases during the initial diagnosis of lung cancer, among which 3 patients with EGFR mutation were excluded, and 19 patients were analyzed. Median intracranial progression-free survival (PFS) was 12.0 months. PFS for patients who received first-line local brain therapy (P=0.021) and crizotinib therapy (P=0.030) was superior to PFS for patients without such therapies. PFS for patients who received first-line crizotinib combined with local brain therapy was 27.0 months and only 4.2 months for those who received crizotinib alone.
Conclusions: First-line crizotinib therapy combined with local brain treatment can improve intracranial PFS for ALK-positive NSCLC with brain metastases. This finding should be confirmed further through multicenter, prospective clinical trials with large sample size.
背景与目的 间变性淋巴瘤激酶（anaplastic lymphoma kinase, ALK）阳性非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC）是肺癌的一个重要亚型。ALK阳性NSCLC脑转移患者的治疗尚无标准模式。方法 本研究对我院2013年3月-2016年3月期间确诊的ALK阳性NSCLC脑转移患者的临床资料和治疗情况进行回顾性分析，探讨不同治疗模式患者的转归。结果 84例晚期ALK阳性NSCLC患者中，22例初诊时有脑转移，剔除3例合并表皮生长因子受体（epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR）双突变患者，共19例纳入分析。中位颅内疾病进展时间（progression-free survival, PFS）为12.0个月，一线脑部局部治疗（P=0.021）及一线克唑替尼治疗（P=0.030）可延长PFS；一线克唑替尼联合脑部局部治疗的中位颅内PFS为27.0个月，而单纯克唑替尼治疗的PFS仅为4.2个月。结论 一线克唑替尼联合脑部局部治疗有助于延长ALK阳性晚期NSCLC患者的颅内PFS，因例数少，尚有待大样本多中心前瞻性临床研究证实。.