Impact of epidermal growth factor receptor gene expression level on clinical outcomes in epidermal growth factor receptor mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients taking first-line epidermal growth factor receptor–tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Huang Chih Chang, Yu Mu Chen, Chia Cheng Tseng, Kuo Tung Huang, Chin Chou Wang, Yung Che Chen, Chien Hao Lai, Wen Feng Fang, Hsu Ching Kao, Meng Chih Lin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are first-choice treatments for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients harboring EGFR mutations. Although EGFR mutations are strongly predictive of patients’ outcomes and their response to treatment with EGFR-TKIs, early failure of first-line therapy with EGFR-TKIs in patients with EGFR mutations is not rare. Besides several clinical factors influencing EGFR-TKI efficacies studied earlier such as the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status or uncommon mutation, we would like to see whether semi-quantify EGFR mutation gene expression calculated by 2−ΔΔct was a prognostic factor in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer patients receiving first-line EGFR-TKIs. This retrospective study reviews 926 lung cancer patients diagnosed from January 2011 to October 2013 at the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. Of 224 EGFR-mutant adenocarcinoma patients, 148 patients who had 2−ΔΔct data were included. The best cutoff values of 2−ΔΔct for in-frame deletions in exon 19 (19 deletion) and a position 858 substituted from leucine (L) to an arginine (R) in exon 21 (L858R) were determined using receiver operating characteristic curves. Patients were divided into high and low 2−ΔΔct expression based on the above cutoff level. The best cutoff point of 2−ΔΔct value of 19 deletion and L858R was 31.1 and 104.7, respectively. In all, 92 (62.1%) patients showed high 2−ΔΔct expression and 56 patients (37.9%) low 2−ΔΔct expression. The mean age was 65.6 years. Progression-free survival of 19 deletion mutant patients with low versus high expression level was 17.07 versus 12.04 months (P = 0.004), respectively. Progression-free survival of L858 mutant patients was 13.75 and 7.96 months (P = 0.008), respectively. EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients with lower EGFR gene expression had longer progression-free survival duration without interfering overall survival.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalTumour biology : the journal of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 03 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Keywords

  • EGFR mutation
  • Lung cancer adenocarcinoma
  • oncogene
  • polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
  • tyrosine kinase inhibitors

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