Objective To explore the effect of gene mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR) on targeting therapy of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The 139 hospitalized patients who had been treated at least once with platinum-based chemotherapy and had tumor progression or recurrence after the last chemotherapy between December 2005 and December 2009, underwent EGFR gene test extracted from the pathological tissues. Based on the results of the test, the patients were divided into three groups: EGFR mutation per os (p.o.)Gefitinib (MPG) group, wild-type EGFR per os (p. o. ) Gefitinib (WpG) group and wild-type EGFR post-docetaxel chemotherapy (WpD) group. Clinical characteristics, pathology, treatment efficacy,survival time, performance status (PS) score, adverse reaction and quality of life of patients in the three groups were assessed. Results The EGFR mutation rate were higher in female, patients with adenocarcinoma and non-smokers than in male, smokers and those without adenocarcinoma. There were significant differences in median progression-free survival and median survival time among the three groups, which were 2.8 and 8. 9 months in MpG group, 2.0 and 7.1 months in WpG group,2.5 and 7. 8 months in WpD group(H=11. 198, 16. 991 ,all P＜0.01). The changes of PS score were significantly different between MpG group and WpG group (96. 8% vs. 62. 0%, x2 = 12. 583 ,P＜0. 01 ). However, there was no difference in changes of PS score between WpG group and WpD group (62. 0% vs. 66. 0%, x2 =0. 878,P＞0. 05). Conclusions The gene mutation of epidermal growth factor receptor may be served as an important indicator of advanced non-small cell cancer therapy.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum tumor markers including carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) for the diagnosis of lung cancer. Methods The levels of above mentioned tumor markers in the BALF and serum samples of 70 patients with pathologically diagnosed lung cancer and 40 patients with benign lung diseases (BLD) were measured by electrochemiluminescence. Results The levels of 3 tumor markers in the BALF and serum were significantly higher in cancer patients than those with BLD (P