Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018681 (headache)
 56,091 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 54-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for vertigo, headache and vomiting at the end of July, 2001. Under a diagnosis of cerebellar tumor and right lung tumor, she underwent a resection of cerebellar tumor on August 7, 2001. The histopathological diagnosis was "metastatic adenocarcinoma". Lung cancer was doubted as for the origin, however, she did not want further examination. The patient was given 2 courses of postoperative chemotherapy (CBDCA+VNR) and radiotherapy (50 Gy), and discharged. Gefitinib treatment was begun in September, 2002 at her request. The tumor marker was not elevated, and the tumor size on CT showed the tendency toward some reduction. Close examination including PET revealed no metastasis. The patient then underwent right upper lobectomy (ND 2 a) on October 8, 2004 at her request. Histopathologically, psammoma body existed but no cancer cells nor lymph node metastasis. It seemed that there was a complete response by gefitinib after 3 years.
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PMID:[A case of complete response in a primary lesion treated by gefitinib for two years after surgery of brain metastasis from lung cancer]. 1661 60

Carcinomatous meningitis is a severe complication of lung cancer. Although treatment with gefitinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, has been reported to be highly effective against lung cancers harboring a mutated EGF gene, its effect against carcinomatous meningitis is unknown. Here, we report successful treatment of carcinomatous meningitis with gefitinib in a lung cancer patient suffered from meningeal metastasis. A 62-year-old, non-smoking, Japanese male was admitted for headache, failing vision, and temporary loss of consciousness and was subsequently diagnosed with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma and carcinomatous meningitis. A tumor sample revealed the in-frame deletion of codons 746 to 750 (E746 to A750) in exon 19 of the EGF gene, which leads to constitutive activation of the tyrosine kinase domain and high-affinity binding of gefitinib. The patient's performance status was poor owing to progression of the meningitis and elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. Combined treatment with gefitinib (250 mg/day) and whole-brain irradiation (36 Gray total) proved to be effective. It is noteworthy that the level of gefitinib in the CSF was less than 1% of the serum level (serum: 117 nM before drug re-administration and 132 nM 2 hrs later; CSF: 0.9 nM both before and 2 hrs after drug re-administration). Gefitinib treatment should be considered for patients with carcinomatous meningitis and lung adenocarcinoma harboring a mutated EGF gene.
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PMID:Successful treatment of carcinomatous meningitis with gefitinib in a patient with lung adenocarcinoma harboring a mutated EGF receptor gene. 1844 12

A 69-year-old female, who had been admitted to another hospital with a complaint of headache and there detected brain tumor, was referred to our hospital for further examination and therapy. The patient was diagnosed as having advanced lung cancer with multiple brain metastasis. She was treated with five courses of a combination of chemotherapy consisting of carboplatin and paclitaxel following gamma knife radiotherapy. She showed a remarkable response, however, she experienced the side effects of general fatigue and numbness in her extremities, which were intolerable. Then, therapy with gefitinib alone was chosen as second-line chemotherapy. After one month, this therapy was discontinued due to grade 3 skin trouble and rash. When her condition improved, every other day oral administration of gefitinib was resumed. She has been treated on an outpatient basis because of no severe adverse reactions. The patient is alive with good performance status (PS) 0 more than one year after taking gefitinib. Furthermore, the primary and metastatic tumors are not enlarged. Gefitinib orally administered every other day could be a promising regimen as second-line chemotherapy for patients with lung cancer and brain metastasis.
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PMID:[Successful gefitinib every other day administration in an advanced lung cancer patient with brain metastasis after gamma knife radiotherapy and chemotherapy]. 2000 63