comparative assessment between palliative radiotherapy with concurrent erlotinib and radiotherapy alone in advanced and/or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer

Introduction: it was earlier documented that concurrent systemic therapy has a beneficial effect in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc) patients when given along with palliative local radiation. but, the data in indian population is limited. so, we conducted the study to assess the effect of concurrent erlotinib and palliative thoracic radiotherapy as compared to palliative radiotherapy alone in patients with advanced and/or metastatic nsclc. material & methods: previously untreated patients of advanced and/or metastatic nsclc, were included in this study, to receive either palliative radiotherapy 30gy/10fractions with concurrent erlotinib 150mg daily (group 1) or radiotherapy alone with similar dose-fractionation (group 2). symptomatic relief & quality of life (qol) were assessed using different internationally validated tools. results: a total of 60-patients were enrolled into the study. after 4-weeks of radiotherapy, patients in group 1 showed better improvement in qol scoring and had more symptomatic relief than group 2. nineteen and eleven patients of group 1 and 2 showed partial response. median survival was 7.4 and 5.1 months in group 1 & 2, respectively. conclusion: our study concluded that concurrent erlotinib with palliative thoracic radiotherapy in advanced and/or metastatic nsclc patients results in increased symptomatic relief & survival as well improvement in qol.