Pathological Signature and Therapeutic Status of NSCLC Patients with Common or Rare Driver Gene Alterations in North China：A real world retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Although guidelines recommended to test EGFR/ALK/ROS-1 gene alterations in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients before treatment, there is now growing evidence that rare driver genes and mutations also can inform targeted therapy and improve outcomes for this traditionally underrepresented population. This study aimed to describe mutational patterns and linked clinical parameters in a Chinese population-based NSCLC cohort.Methods: This study included patients with pathologically confirmed NSCLC, who were routinely screened for EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, ALK, ROS1, RET, MET, HER2, and PIK3CA mutations by the NMPA approved multi-gene detection kit. The demographic and clinicopathological data, treatment information, clinical outcomes after first-line treatment, as well as nine driver gene mutation statuses and PD-L1 expression level of these patients were retrospectively collected.Results: Finally, 431 patients were enrolled, most patients were male (55.9%), with adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma (80.7%) and in stage IV (50.6%). Among all the 431 patients, 61.5% patients were identified with gene mutation including 101 with rare mutation, 164 with 19del or with L858R mutation. Adenocarcinoma patients have a higher mutation rate (73.6%), and the mutations mainly occur in EGFR, KRAS, ALK and HER2. While, the gene mutation characteristics in squamous cell carcinoma patients with were relatively simple, only 2 patients with EGFR 19del and 2 patients with PIK3CA mutation. More PD-L1 expression could detected in patients with rare mutation. The median PFS1 of patients with common mutation (13 months, 95% CI: 9.9-16) was longer than the patients with rare mutation (5 months, 95 % CI: 0-10.5). Conclusions: The clinicopathologic features and clinical treatment status among NSCLC patients with common or rare driver gene mutations were different. The survival of patients with rare mutation was worse than that of patients with common mutation. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the treatment strategy and survival status of patients with rare mutations in clinical practice.