Dr. Greg Riely, medical oncologist from MSKCC, discusses the controversial question of whether patients should continue on an oral EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor after progression.

The response of cancers with a specific driver mutation , such as an EGFR mutation or ALK rearrangement, to a targeted inhibitor of that target, is often dramatic and long-lasting, but it is also almost always limited in duration, typically lasting several months or a few years.  Beyond that point, we tend to see a subset of the cancer cells become resistant progress, perhaps manifested as one or several  new lesions or growth of one area against a background of most of the remainder of the cancer still being well-controlled.  

In my last post, I described the concept of treating with a targeted therapy like an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) or ALK inhibitor at the time of acquired resistance.