Favorable response in “locally advanced stage” of adenocarcinoma lung to erlotinib: Quality of life and clinical and radiological outcome are satisfactory after 24 weeks

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and the leading cause of human cancer deaths worldwide. Adenocarcinoma is the most common histological type of lung cancer. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been reported to exert a significant impact in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer, particularly in patients harboring mutations in the EGFR gene. In this case report, 41 years male with “locally advanced stage” of lung cancer presented with shortness of breath on routine work and compromised quality of life, diagnosed to have malignant pleural effusion after pleural fluid cytology evaluation. We performed bronchoscopy guided transbronchial lung biopsy and confirmed to have adenocarcinoma lung after histopathology evaluation. We further analyzed thyroid transcription factor-1 and EGFR mutation study in histopathology sample and started “targeted therapy” with erlotinib. We documented excellent clinical and radiological response with complete resolution of pleural fluid and lung parenchymal lesion, and significant improvement in quality of life after 6 weeks of erlotinib. We used erlotinib as a “maintenance therapy” in adenocarcinoma lung for 24 weeks.