In vitro and in vivo antitumor efficacy of sequentially combined vinorelbine and gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer

摘要: Introduction: The current standard of care for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is systemic chemotherapy or treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) for EGFR-mutated tumors. Preclinical studies suggest that the combination of cytotoxic agents and EGFR-TKIs may increase the inhibitory effect albeit influenced by the type of drug and the order of administration. Whether these combinations may exert similar effects in tumors poorly responsive to EGFR-TKIs is still unclear. The antitumor efficacy of different protocols with vinorelbine (VNB) and gefitinib (GEF) were investigated in two NSCLC cell lines, in vitro and in vivo, as a rationale to be potentially exploited in the clinical setting.Methods: The EGFR-wild-type A549 and the EGFR-mutated (exon 21 L858R/exon 20 T790M) H1975 cell lines were treated for 72 hrs with VNB and GEF according to different …