Stage IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is seen in a relatively heterogeneous group of patients with ipsilateral mediastinal (N2) lymph node involvement. The relative roles of different treatment modalities are not clear. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) may result in dramatic responses in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma carrying EGFR activating mutations. In case reports, the efficacy of perioperative EGFR-TKI therapy in patients with locally advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR gene mutations was satisfactory. Although no prospective data support the use of EGFR-TKIs as induction therapy in stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC, their low toxicity profile and the possibility of a rapid tumor response suggests that prospective trials are required. Therefore, this study evaluated the value of induction erlotinib therapy in IIIA-N2 NSCLC selected by EGFR gene analysis and explored a new treatment strategy for this subset. Erlotinib specifically targets the EGFR TK domain, which is highly expressed and occasionally mutated in various forms of cancer. It binds in a reversible fashion to the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding site of the receptor.
