Prolonged overall survival of patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis from nonsmall cell lung cancer

Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) carries a devastating prognosis. Treatment selection is limited for patients with LM. We introduced to use nimotuzumab (also known as h-R3) for treating LM of nonsmall cell lung cancer. Here, we report two patients in our treatment who had prolonged overall survival over 1 year each. The pressure of cerebrospinal fluid of the patients decreased remarkably after intrathecal therapy. Symptoms of the patients had been improved quickly after one or two times of intrathecal therapy. Nimotuzumab was well tolerated used in intrathecal therapy.