In our retrospective analysis, 164 lung adenocarcinoma patients with known epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status who received the treatment of erlotinib as 2nd/3rd line setting were reviewed. The disease control rate (DCR) in patients without hepatic metastases group was higher than that in patients with hepatic metastases (66.1% vs 54.5%, p < 0.001). In EGFR mutation-positive patients, median PFS was significantly longer in patients without hepatic metastases than that in those with hepatic metastases (9.9 months 95% CI 7.74–12.06 months vs. 7.9 months 95% CI 5.88–9.92 months; p = 0.017). Therefore, we assume that hepatic metastasis may be a poor predictive marker for erlotinib in lung adenocarcinoma.