Erlotinib treatment for persistent spontaneous pneumothorax in non-small cell lung cancer: a case report

Spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) develops secondary to primary lung cancer. It has a very low incidence and accounts for less than 1% of all cases. Once SP develops, the prognosis is usually very poor, and majority of patients live no longer than 3 months. Most patients with advanced stage can not undergo resection due to the poor general condition. Thus, chest tube drainage remains among the treatments of choice although it is not always completely effective in preventing recurrence. In refractory SP, patients would bear the chest tube for their whole life. Here we report a case of SP following chemotherapy in adenocarcinoma of the lung with multiple organs metastases. In this case, chest tube drainage was not effective in preventing recurrence of SP. However, the treatment was successful with oral erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI).