A potential treatment option for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: Three cases

Objective: Recent progress in targeted therapy and immunotherapy has reduced the mortality of advanced-stage patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, despite advances in treatment, only some patients are eligible for and benefit from genome-targeted therapy, while few patients are ineligible for genome-driven therapy or have limited treatment options due to performance status, comorbidity, and adverse events or rejection of chemotherapy. Clinical features and outcomes: We report the cases of three patients with advanced NSCLC who were not available to continue conventional anticancer therapy, who were able to maintain progression-free survival (PFS) or disease-free survival (DFS), and who have shown symptom amelioration after treatment with herbal Medicine. Patients were managed only with herbal medicines according to their disease status and symptoms, without conventional anticancer therapy. Two patients with metastatic NSCLC maintained PFS for 19 and 20 months after the discontinuation of chemotherapy, respectively. A patient with locally advanced NSCLC showed no evidence of recurrence for more than 5 years despite an increase in squamous cell carcinoma antigens. These patients had considerable clinical outcomes to maintain relatively long PFS and DFS. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the potential treatment option of herbal medicine in inhibiting tumor progression and prolonging PFS and DFS in patients with advanced NSCLC.