Article Abstract

Uncommon EGFR mutations in a cohort of Chinese NSCLC patients and outcomes of first-line EGFR-TKIs and platinum-based chemotherapy

Authors: Jinpeng Shi, Hui Yang, Tao Jiang, Xuefei Li, Chao Zhao, Limin Zhang, Sha Zhao, Xiaozhen Liu, Yijun Jia, Yan Wang, Lei Xi, Shijia Zhang, Chunxia Su, Shengxiang Ren, Caicun Zhou

Abstract

Objective: Data on the clinical activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and uncommon EGFR mutations remain insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the effect of first-line EGFR-TKIs or platinum-based chemotherapy in NSCLC patients with uncommon EGFR mutations.
Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 504 patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC. The clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were collected and compared between patients with common and uncommon EGFR-mutant NSCLC.
Results: Seventy patients (13.9%) harboring uncommon EGFR mutations were included. Thirty of these patients received EGFR-TKIs and 40 received platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line therapy. The objective response rate (ORR) and median progression-free survival (mPFS) of patients treated with TKIs in the uncommon mutation group was significantly inferior to that in the common mutation group (ORR: 23.3% vs. 51.8%, P=0.003; mPFS: 7.1 vs. 10.9 months, P<0.001). In the uncommon group, mPFS was similar between first-line EGFR-TKIs treatment and platinum-based chemotherapy (7.1 vs. 6.1 months, P=0.893). In patients with EGFR G719X or L861Q mutations, the mPFS was longer in the first-line EGFR-TKIs treatment group than in the chemotherapy group, but the difference was not statistically significant (G719X: 8.2 vs. 5.8 months, P=0.061; L861Q: 7.6 vs. 4.1 months, P=0.872). Multivariate analyses identified adenocarcinoma (P=0.003) as the independent predictive factor for PFS in patients with uncommon EGFR mutations who were treated with first-line EGFR-TKIs.
Conclusions: The current study demonstrated that the effect of first-line EGFR-TKIs was similar to that of platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with uncommon EGFR-mutant NSCLC. Adenocarcinoma was the independent predictive factor for PFS in uncommon EGFR-mutant NSCLC patients treated with first-line EGFR-TKIs.

Keywords: EGFR; uncommon mutation; tyrosine kinase inhibitors; chemotherapy