Research Progress Of Erlotinib Therapy For Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

In recent years, the malignancy is "the first killer’" that cause of death in human. The primary lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Because of no obvious clinical symptoms, lung cancer is often diagnosed in the middle-late stage when the patients lose the best surgical period. Union for international cancer control(UICC) depending on the biological characteristics of the tumor cells, divided lung cancer into two categories:non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). NSCLC is divided into squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and other subgroups. Surgery is the foremost treatment for early NSCLC, advanced NSCLC (IIIB, IV) with integrated therapy, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, molecular targeted therapy, immunotherapy, Chinese medicine, best supportive care (BSC). Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) as molecular targeted drugs have become a hot research, because of significant improvement in survival and quality of life (QOL) for patients with advanced NSCLC, without a traditional cell toxic drug-related side effects such as bone marrow suppression, cardiac toxicity, liver and kidney dysfunction. We review one of the EGFR-TKIs Erlotinib, in clinical application and progress of research on advanced NSCLC treatment.