Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Purpose: Acquired resistance has been an unignorable bottleneck for patients benefiting from epidermal growth factor receptortyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI). Ginsenoside Rg3 is an anti-angiogenic agent which can down-regulate expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and EGFR. Combination of EGFR-TKI and Ginsenoside Rg3 may be a promising strategy delaying acquired resistance. This retrospective study was to explore the efficacy and safety of this combined modality for EGFR-mutant nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods: The data of 124 patients with advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR active mutation were collected and analyzed. All of them were treated with first-line EGFR-TKI and were divided into two groups. In group A (n=52), patients were treated with EGFR-TKI plus ginsenoside Rg3. In group B (n=72), patients received EGFR-TKI alone. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR) and side effects were analyzed to assess the applicability of EGFR-TKI plus ginsenoside Rg3. Results: By the deadline of March 15th, 2016, median PFS were significantly longer in group A than in group B (12.4 months vs. 9.9 months, P=0.017, HR 0.63, 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.92). In addition, ORR was higher in group A than in group B (59.6% vs. 41.7%, P=0.049). Median OS of group A showed a tendency longer than group B (25.7 months vs. 24.0 months, P=0.088, HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.07). Conclusions: Our data suggest that EGFR-mutant NSCLC patients can obtain median PFS benefit from EGFR-TKIs combining with ginsenoside Rg3,which provides a treatment option to delay acquired resistance of EGFR-TKI.

Biography

Jianguo Sun was graduated from the Third Military Medical University in 1995 and completed his PhD in 2004. He is the Deputy Director of Cancer Institute of People’s Liberation Army, Associate Chief Physician and Associate Professor in Oncology Department, Xinqiao Hospital. He has worked at Stanford University Medical School as a Visiting Scholar (2013-2014). In scientific research, he has 4 projects in The National Natural Science Foundation of China. He often attends international conferences on oncology (ASCO, ESTRO) and reports his contribution at cell science international conference.

Email: sunjg09@aliyun.com