2017 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 216-220
Background. Pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma (PPC) is a subtype of sarcomatoid carcinoma with a poor prognosis, and the response to chemotherapy is generally poor. In recent years, the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors against PPC has been reported. Case. A 61-year-old never-smoking woman was admitted to our hospital with blood sputum. She was diagnosed with PPC (cT2N2M0, stage IIIA) with an EGFR mutation at exon21 L858R. She was treated with chemoradiotherapy, but the tumor became progressive three years and three months after first-line therapy. Therefore, she was treated with gefitinib and then with gefitinib plus pemetrexed for five years. After disease progression occurred again, nivolumab therapy was initiated as fourth-line treatment. She received 12 cycles as maintenance therapy, which resulted in good disease control. Conclusion. We reported a case of advanced PPC with an EGFR mutation in a never-smoker leading to favorable disease control with nivolumab therapy. A study in a larger number of PPC cases is required to confirm the efficiency of nivolumab therapy.
