A phase II study of icotinib and whole-brain radiotherapy in Chinese patients with brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer

Icotinib is a new first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors. A phase II study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of icotinib in combination with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in Chinese NSCLC patients with brain metastases (BMs); the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/plasma concentrations of icotinib were also investigated. Eligible patients had BMs from NSCLC, regardless of the EGFR status. Icotinib was administered at 125 mg orally 3 times/day until tumor progression or unacceptable toxicity, concurrently with WBRT (3.0 Gy per day, 5 days per week, to 30 Gy). CSF and plasma samples were collected simultaneously from 10 patients. Icotinib concentrations in the CSF and plasma were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Twenty patients were enrolled. The median follow-up time was 20.0 months. The overall response rate was 80.0 %. The median progression-free survival time was 7.0 months (95 % CI 1.2-13.2 months), and the median survival time (MST) was 14.6 months (95 % CI 12.5-16.7 months). Of the 18 patients with known EGFR status, the MST was 22.0 months for those with an EGFR mutation and was 7.5 months for those with wild-type EGFR (P = 0.0001). The CSF concentration and penetration rate of icotinib were 11.6 +/- A 9.1 ng/mL and 1.4 +/- A 1.1 %, respectively. No patient experienced a parts per thousand yengrade 4 toxicity. Icotinib was well tolerated in combination with WBRT and showed efficacy in patients with BMs from NSCLC. This clinical benefit was related to the presence of activating EGFR mutations.