Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2022 May 26:15:539-546.
doi: 10.2147/PGPM.S367978. eCollection 2022.

Cancer Metastases from Lung Adenocarcinoma Disappeared After Molecular Targeted Therapy: A Successfully Clinical Treatment Experience

Meng-Jie Li #  1 , Jun Wei #  2 , Guo-Ping Ai #  3 , Ying Liu  4 , Jian Zhu  4
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Case Reports

Cancer Metastases from Lung Adenocarcinoma Disappeared After Molecular Targeted Therapy: A Successfully Clinical Treatment Experience

Meng-Jie Li et al. Pharmgenomics Pers Med. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Introduction: Molecular targeted therapy has shown certain therapeutic effects on various cancer types, especially lung cancer. Here, we report a case of a patient with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with bone metastases and metastatic lesions that disappeared after molecular targeted therapy.

Patient information: A 49-year-old male patient's chest CT scan showed a patchy, slightly high-density shadow on the upper lobe of the left lung with an unclear boundary. The multiple thoracic vertebrae, 4th lumbar vertebrae, multiple ribs, right sacroiliac joint, right hip joint, right inferior ramus of pubis, left middle and upper femur, and right proximal radial bone showed nodular and slightly high-density shadows.

Interventions: The patient was not considered eligible for tumor resection due to his metastatic lesions. A resected lymph node biopsy was performed. The pathologic findings suggested lung adenocarcinoma, and the gene detection results indicated NM-005228:exon19:c.2235-2249del:p. GLu746-Ala750del (15.31%), NM-005228:exon20:c. G2356A: p. V786M (1.67%). The patient received the icotinib hydrochloride molecular targeted therapy.

Outcomes: After two months of treatment, pulmonary nodules were basically absent on chest CT scan re-examination. After nine months of treatment, no obvious abnormalities in the thoracic vertebral bone were found on 99mTc-MDP bone scan and CT scan re-examination. No obvious structural abnormalities, such as enlarged lymph nodes, could be found by ultrasound re-examination, and the patient remained alive without recurrence at the five-year follow-up.

Conclusion: This case report may provide a clue for the future development of molecular targeted therapy for lung cancer. It will allow surgeons to collaborate with oncologists and raise awareness of the benefit of the multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Moreover, our results will help patients to fully understand the effect of nonsurgical treatments and improve confidence in the diagnosis and treatment of advanced lung cancer.

Keywords: bone metastases; gene therapy; lung cancer; molecular targeted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A 16-slice computed tomographic scan revealed a left lung nodule superior lobe (2.8×1.2 cm) anterior segment. The nodule had a spiculated sign, pleural indentation, vessel convergence, and multiple burr shadows on the edges.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A 16-slice computed tomographic scan revealed a high-density nodule in the fourth thoracic vertebra.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A 99mTc-MDP bone scan revealed bone metastases at the 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, and 12th thoracic vertebrae and 4th lumbar vertebrae.
Figure 4
Figure 4
An enlarged lymph node that can be touched on the surface of the body is proven to be structurally abnormal by color ultrasound and is eventually used for pathological biopsy.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Image of histologic diagnosis using hematoxylin and eosin staining (original ×200), which revealed lung adenocarcinoma metastasis.
Figure 6
Figure 6
A 16-slice computed tomographic scan revealed that the left lung nodule was significantly smaller than before and was almost absorbed.
Figure 7
Figure 7
A 99mTc-MDP bone scan revealed that the bone metastases were absorbed.
Figure 8
Figure 8
A 16-slice computed tomographic scan revealed that the high-density nodule in the fourth thoracic vertebra was absorbed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Zhao L, Li L, Chen T, Fang C. Effective treatment of NSCLC with surgery after nivolumab combined with chemotherapy: a case report and brief review of the literature. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:13307–13313. doi:10.2147/OTT.S266155 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Osmani L, Askin F, Gabrielson E, Li QK. Current WHO guidelines and the critical role of immunohistochemical markers in the subclassification of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC): moving from targeted therapy to immunotherapy. Semin Cancer Biol. 2018;52:103–109. doi:10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.11.019 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Smeltzer MP, Wynes MW, Lantuejoul S, et al. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Global Survey on molecular testing in lung cancer. J Thorac Oncol. 2020;15(9):1434–1448. doi:10.1016/j.jtho.2020.05.002 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shrestha S, Higuchi T, Shirai K, et al. Prognostic significance of semi-quantitative FDG-PET parameters in stage I non-small cell lung cancer treated with carbon-ion radiotherapy. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020;47(5):1220–1227. doi:10.1007/s00259-019-04585-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhu J, Zhang Y, Gao XH, Xi EP. Coronavirus disease 2019 or lung cancer: a differential diagnostic experience and management model from Wuhan. J Thorac Oncol. 2020;15(8):e141–e142. doi:10.1016/j.jtho.2020.04.030 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

This work is supported by grants from Yuying Plan with Growth Project of General hospital of Central Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army, CHINA [No. ZZYCZ202106] and Primary Research & Development Plan of Hubei Province, CHINA [No.2020BCB059].

LinkOut - more resources