Response to chemotherapy, reexposure to crizotinib and treatment with a novel ALK inhibitor in a patient with acquired crizotinib resistance

Respiration. 2014;88(3):262-4. doi: 10.1159/000364949. Epub 2014 Aug 7.

Abstract

The treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has dramatically changed over the last decade. It has developed from an unspecific approach based on platinum doublet chemotherapy to a personalized, molecularly targeted therapy. Crizotinib is a new tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of NSCLC with gene rearrangement of EML4 and ALK. Despite good initial responses, patients treated with crizotinib relapse after an average of 10 months. In this case report, we present a patient with acquired crizotinib resistance whose adenocarcinoma responded to a second course of crizotinib following a drug holiday and chemotherapy with pemetrexed. This is the second case report to suggest that retreatment with crizotinib is an option for patients with initial benefit from ALK inhibition.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / drug therapy*
  • Adenocarcinoma / metabolism
  • Aged
  • Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Crizotinib
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm*
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Lung Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Male
  • Pyrazoles / therapeutic use*
  • Pyridines / therapeutic use*
  • Pyrimidines / therapeutic use*
  • Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / metabolism
  • Sulfones / therapeutic use*

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Pyrazoles
  • Pyridines
  • Pyrimidines
  • Sulfones
  • Crizotinib
  • ALK protein, human
  • Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase
  • Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
  • ceritinib