Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Application of combined erlotinib and bronchoscopic interventional therapy in the treatment of bronchial lung cancer

Ting Anh Tuan Jiang , Yi Fu, Luomei Xue, Fayong Lan, Miao Tan

Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Third People's Hospital of Xindu District, Chengdu, China;

For correspondence:- Ting Jiang Email: fenh31559@163.com

Accepted: 27 February 2024 Published: 31 March 2024

Citation: Jiang TA, Fu Y, Xue L, Lan F, Tan M. Application of combined erlotinib and bronchoscopic interventional therapy in the treatment of bronchial lung cancer. Trop J Pharm Res 2024; 23(3):587-593 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v23i3.13

© 2024 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of combined drug therapy and bronchoscopy intervention in the treatment of bronchial lung cancer.

Methods: A total of 80 patients with bronchial lung cancer admitted in The Third People's Hospital of Xindu District, Chengdu, China were enrolled and assigned in control and study groups (n = 40), and received bronchoscopy intervention alone and combined bronchoscopy intervention/erlotinib therapy, respectively, over a period of 4 weeks. Erlotinib therapy was given by oral administration of 150 mg once daily. Efficacy, levels of serum tumor marker, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) content, and incidence of adverse reactions in the two groups of patients were evaluated.

Results: The overall response rate (ORR) in the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group (27.5 vs 55.0 %, p < 0.05). Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) decreased significantly after treatment, when compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Furthermore, after treatment, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) levels in the study group were lower than in the control group (p < 0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions was 12.5 and 17.5 % in the control and study groups, respective (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: The combination of erlotinib therapy and bronchoscopy intervention significantly improves therapeutic efficacy, as well as serum tumor marker and MMP levels in bronchial lung cancer patients. Furthermore, it is safe as it does not significantly increase the risk of adverse reactions. However, further and broader clinical trials are recommended prior to its application in clinical practice.

Keywords: Bronchial lung cancer, Bronchoscopy intervention, Erlotinib, Median survival time, Serum tumor markers