Postoperative survival of EGFR-TKI-targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR 19 or 21 mutations: a retrospective study

Background The aim of this retrospective study is to identify epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in non-small cell lung cancer patients and to compare the long-term postoperative outcomes in different EGFR-TKI-targeted therapy effects between the different EGFR mutation groups. Methods A total of 2094 postoperative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with EGFR gene detection were collected in the Department of Pathology in the Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from January 2003 to January 2014. Three hundred sixty-three patients were treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) after surgery: 184 harbored the exon 19 deletion mutation and 179 cases carried the exon 21 L858R point mutation. The end points included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and the response rate. Results OS was increased in the EGFR exon 19 deletion group compared with the exon 21 L858R point mutation group (92 vs. 65 months; P