A novel dosing regimen for erlotinib or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof is described herein. The dosing regimen demonstrates impressive control of central nervous system disease, which is better than that reported with standard dose erlotinib. The use of the novel dosing regimen for treating patients in need thereof, including for controlling formation of metastatic brain, leptomeninges, or CNS lesions in a patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that harbors epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation with or without pre-existing brain metastases, is also described herein.