Evaluation of the response for gefitinib in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using FDG-PET scan

9703 Background: Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan is reported as useful and accurate nuclear medicine method for diagnosis of malignancy/benign, staging, metastasis and recurrence in primary lung cancer. Gefitinib (Iressa) is an orally active, selective EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks signal transduction pathways implicated in proliferation and survival of cancer cells. Phase II trial to evaluate objective tumor response rate and safety of ZD1839 was operated worldwide in patients with previously treated NSCLC. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of FDG-PET scan for the response of gefitinib in NSCLC. Method: Fourteen patients of recurrent or chemotherapy refractory NCSLC administered 250 mg/day of gefitinib were analyzed. Twelve patients treated with gefitinib evaluated the response using conventional CT scan were compared with FDG-PET scan at a time. Two patients diagnosed for BAC (bronchioloalveolar carcinoma) could not be analyzed bec...