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Pemetrexed plus dendritic cells as second-line treatment for patients with stage IIIB/IV non-small cell lung cancer who had treatment with TKI

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and toxicity of pemetrexed plus dendritic cells (DCs) in patients suffering from stage IIIB or IV lung adenocarcinoma, who had undergone maintenance treatment with gefitinib or erlotinib. Patients who had failed gefitinib or erlotinib maintenance treatment had ECOG performance statuses ranging from 0 to 2.27 patients received pemetrexed plus DCs as second-line treatment. Dosage: 500 mg/m2 pemetrexed was administered on day 1 of a 21-day cycle. DCs were given for one cycle of 21 days. Three patients (11.1 %) experienced a partial response and 14 patients (51.9 %) showed stable disease. Ten patients (37.0 %) had progressive disease. The median time to progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.8 months [95 % confidence interval (CI) 4.4–5.2], and the median overall survival was 10.7 months (95 % CI 10.3–11.2). In the subgroup analysis, PFS had a significant difference between the low ratio of CD4/CD8 and normal ratio of CD4/CD8, with 4.5 months (95 % CI 4.2–4.9) and 5.0 months (95 % CI 4.5–5.7), (Log Rank = 0.039), respectively. No one patient experienced grade 4 toxicity. A regimen of pemetrexed combined with DCs is marginally effective and well tolerated in patients with stage IIIB or IV lung adenocarcinoma who had received gefitinib or erlotinib first-line treatment.

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No conflicts of interest exist for any of the authors of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining, People’s Republic of China

    Rong-Hang Hu

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Shandong Tumor Hospital, Jiyan Jinan Road #440, Jinan, 250117, People’s Republic of China

    Sheng-Bin Shi, Jie-Lin Qi, Jing Tian, Xiao-Yong Tang, Guo-Fang Liu & Chun-Xiao Chang

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  1. Rong-Hang Hu
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  2. Sheng-Bin Shi
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  3. Jie-Lin Qi
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Correspondence to Jie-Lin Qi.

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Rong-Hang Hu and Sheng-Bin Shi have contributed equally to this work.

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Hu, RH., Shi, SB., Qi, JL. et al. Pemetrexed plus dendritic cells as second-line treatment for patients with stage IIIB/IV non-small cell lung cancer who had treatment with TKI. Med Oncol 31, 63 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0063-z

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