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Efficacy of early combination of local radiotherapy and GM-CSF for advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with icotinib

Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) volume 189, pages 791–797 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Lung cancer is a disease that severely endangers human health. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 4/5 of lung cancers.

Aims

To investigate the efficacy of early combination of local radiotherapy and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) for advanced NSCLC treated with icotinib.

Methods

Forty-two patients with stage IV NSCLC complicated with EGFR gene mutation were selected and randomly divided into two groups, with 21 patients in each group. Patients in control group were treated with icotinib, and patients in experimental group were treated with icotinib combined with local radiotherapy and subcutaneous injection of GM-CSF. One-year progression free survival between two groups was compared.

Results

Three months after treatment, the efficacy in experimental group was significantly better than that in control group, and objective response rate was 95.24% in experimental group, which was higher than the 71.43% in control group. Patients in experimental group had no differences in white blood cell and neutrophil, but had significantly lower carcino-embryonic antigen and neuron-specific enolase levels and higher CD3+, CD4+, and CD4+/CD8+ than those in control group and before treatment. There were no differences in the proportion of patients with adverse reactions between two groups. One-year progression free survival was significantly better in experimental group than in control group.

Conclusions

Early combination of local radiotherapy and GM-CSF has a significant efficacy for advanced NSCLC accounts for approximately 4/5 of lung cancers treated with icotinib, and it can improve patients’ autoimmunity and lengthen progression free survival.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Research Project of the Health and Family Planning Commission of Yibin (2018yw011).

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Author notes

  1. Ye Qiu and Xinyun He contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Oncology, The Second People’s Hospital of Yibin, No.268 Nanguang Road, Cuiping District, Yibin, 644000, Sichuan Province, China

    Ye Qiu, Yulan Jiang & Yuming Jia

  2. Department of Oncology, The Guizhou Provincial People’s Hospital, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China

    Xinyun He

  3. Department of Gastroenterology, The Second People’s Hospital of Yibin, No.96 North Street, Cuiping District, 644000, Yibin, Sichuan Province, China

    Zepei Li

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  1. Ye Qiu
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Correspondence to Yuming Jia.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Ye Qiu and Xinyun He are Co-first authors

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Qiu, Y., He, X., Li, Z. et al. Efficacy of early combination of local radiotherapy and GM-CSF for advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with icotinib. Ir J Med Sci 189, 791–797 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-019-02137-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-019-02137-x

Keywords

  • Non-small cell lung cancer
  • Icotinib
  • Local radiotherapy
  • Tumor markers
  • Immune indexes