The expression of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), a target of tyrosine kinase is altered in several kinds of cancer, including in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). For this reason, the use of crizotinib to treat locally advanced or metastatic ALK-positive NSCLC was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2011. The reported adverse events during clinical trials with crizotinib included esophageal disorders in 11% of the patients, although none of them experienced severe events. Drug-induced esophagitis or more severe ulcerations are considerably rare according to the available case reports. We report a patient who presented with severe esophageal ulcers after 2-year treatment with crizotinib for metastatic, ALK-positive NSCLC. These clinical conditions improved after education on proper eating habits and an additional prescription of a proton pump inhibitor. Several months later, the patient developed colitis with severe diarrhea, which was successfully controlled with me..... READ ARTICLE
Advances in Digestive Medicine DOI:10.1177/1078155220961549
Authors: Wei-Wen Su,Hui-Ting Hsu,Po-Ke Hsu