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    ED 02 - Molecular Testing Around the World (Genomics in Clinic (Timelines/Bioinformatics), Testing Platforms & Algorithms (NGS, Targeted Panels, FISH, IHC), Cost Considerations, Strategies for Identifying Rare Genomic Subsets in Clinical Trials) (ID 2)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Education Session
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      ED02.02 - Asia (ID 1775)

      14:40 - 15:00  |  Author(s): J. Chung

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Abstract:
      Substantial progress has been made toward understanding the tumor biology of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) during the last few years, and major discoveries in the molecular pathogenesis of lung cancer have led to successful applications of targeted therapeutic strategies. One representative of these successes is the subset of lung cancer patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations who have shown improved clinical response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).1 The prevalence of EGFR mutation is higher in the East Asian population than in Western populations. Asian NSCLC patients were reported to show a higher response rate and a longer survival to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR TKIs) as well as traditional chemotherapy. Therefore, genetic testing prior to treatment is becoming increasingly important and considered essential to select appropriate treatment strategies for NSCLC patients, especially in Asia. The exact mechanisms underlying these differences are not clear. However, approximately 45% of patients with NSCLC in the US are women whereas only 25% to 30% of patients with lung cancer are women in Eastern Asia. In addition, In the US, approximately 10% of patients with lung cancer are neversmokers (<100 lifetime cigarettes). In Asia, more than 30% of patients with lung cancer are neversmokers.2 Some international studies and global surveys have been conducted during the past few years to establish the current status of EGFR mutation testing and to establish the standard testing protocols.3-5EGFR mutation test is not yet available in many South East Asian medical institutions. In the medical facilities which do perform EGFR mutation test, the overall testing rate of newly diagnosed NSCLC is 31.8%, varying from 18.3% - 64.8%, the highest EGFR mutation testing rate was observed in Japan and the lowest in South East Asian Countries. Sex, smoking status and histological subtype are the main determining factors for EGFR mutation tests.5 However, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) guidelines recommended that patients with lung adenocarcinoma should not be excluded from testing on the basis of clinical characteristics that include ethnicity, smoking history, and sex. Factors associated with EGFR mutation status were country, sex, ethnicity, smoking status, smoking pack-years, disease stage and histology type. 4 In most countries, EGFR mutation rate and clinical pathologic factors are in line with previous reports in Asia, and the variations of EGFR mutation prevalence between countries are due to the selection of the tested populations. The majority of Asian institutions use PCR-based DNA direct sequencing methods to detect EGFR mutation. Other predictive biomarkers for EGFR TKI therapy are also available, including EGFR gene copy number, single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the EGFR gene, EGFR protein expression. 3 Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and multiplex assays have made feasible the widespread adoption of molecular diagnostics for clinical use. According to our survey, the NGS is not available in clinics in most Asian medical institutions, and can be used for diagnosis of rare diseases and/or research. In China, sequencing based methods are the most commonly used, followed by the amplification mutation refractory system (ARMS).6 In Korea, the PNA clamp method is the most commonly used testing method, followed by direct sequencing methods.7 PCR-INVADER is the most commonly used test in Japan, followed by PNA-LNA PCR clamp.5 The materials for EGFR mutation analysis are usually from diagnostic samples, thus in most countries, small biopsy and cytology specimens are the most commonly used, followed by surgically resected tissues. Cytological specimens including smear slides and/or cell blocks have been shown to be suitable for EGFR mutation test.3, 5At present, the potential barriers to EGFR mutation testing in Asia include the cost, the number of laboratories capable of performing the test, communications between the clinicians and pathologists, and the predefined criteria for the type of patients who should be tested.3 The cost for EGFR mutation tests vary from U.S.$170 to 500. In most countries the costs are funded by the patients, but in a few countries are funded by pharmaceutical companies, while the insurance does not cover the cost of molecular testing in most Asian countries. Currently, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)'s guidelines recommend EGFR-TKI as the first line treatment for patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR sensitizing mutations. Randomized first-line trials have demonstrated consistent improvement in tumor response rate and progression-free survival, but failed to prove overall survival benefit. These finding make TKI the second-line or third-line treatment options for NSCLC. Current data on treatment outcomes of second- and/or third-line EGFR therapy are still inconsistent.8 Patients treated with EGFR-TKI inevitably experience ac¬quired resistance by various molecular mechanisms. Many clinical trials are ongoing to explore the novel agents and strategies for better response and overcoming TKI resistance. In our questionnaire-based survey, four of seven Asia countries have ongoing clinical trials. The clinical trials include the first line and second line and maintance therapy using first generation and new generation EGFR TKIs. In 2013, more than 1000 studies with Chinese trials were registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and some trials used a local pharmaceutical company TKI, icotinib. Phase II studies of crizotinib in East Asian patients with ROS1-positive NSCLC are onging in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement accounts for about 2–13% of unselected Asian patients with NSCLC, and occurs predominantly in younger individuals with adenocarcinoma who never smoked or light smokers (< 40 pack years). There is no strong evidence to suggest an ethnic difference of translocations among patients with NSCLC. The CAP/IASLC/AMP guideline recommended ALK FISH assay using FDA-approved specific companion test (Vysis ALK Break-Apart FISH Probe Kit, Abbott Molecular, Des Plaines, IL) for selecting patients for ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. ALK immunohistochemistry (IHC) may be considered as a screening methodology to select specimens for ALK FISH testing. The ALK rearrangements have been shown to be 4.3% in men and 7.5% in women in Asian NSCLC by meta-analysis. Most Asia countries use FISH to detect ALK rearrangement, in Japan, reverse transcription–PCR (RT–PCR) is commonly used. In China, the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) had approved VENTANA ALK IHC assay to aid the identification of patients for crizotinib treatment. The price of FISH detection range from US$415-800, and IHC range from US$14-220, most of which is funded by the patients.9 Recently, two additional oncogenes, RET and ROS1, were added to the list of driver oncogenes that are targetable with existing TKIs, and several clinical trials investigating the efficacy of such TKIs in Asia have been conducted. FISH and IHC are suitable for the diagnosis of ROS1 fusion, but some studies showed IHC is not suitable for the diagnosis of RET fusion.10 Over the past decades, we have witnessed rapid advances in molecular and cellular biology of lung cancer biology, and new data are upcoming which should facilitate personalized biomarker-based therapy in lung cancer, including characterization of driver mutations, genomic abnormalities and epigenetic changes. Individual centers should develop a multidisciplinary approach to integrate a molecular testing algorithm. Next generation sequencing should be able to resolve much of the complexity of molecular testing, especially in situations where there is only a small amount of tissue available. REFERENCES 1. Janku F, Stewart DJ, Kurzrock R. Targeted therapy in non-small-cell lung cancer--is it becoming a reality? Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2010;7:401-414. 2. Mok TS, Wu YL, Thongprasert S, et al. Gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. N Engl J Med 2009;361:947-957. 3. Salto-Tellez M, Tsao MS, Shih JY, et al. Clinical and testing protocols for the analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in East Asian patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a combined clinical-molecular pathological approach. J Thorac Oncol 2011;6:1663-1669. 4. Shi Y, Au JS, Thongprasert S, et al. A prospective, molecular epidemiology study of EGFR mutations in Asian patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer of adenocarcinoma histology (PIONEER). J Thorac Oncol 2014;9:154-162. 5. Yatabe Y, Kerr KM, Utomo A, et al. EGFR mutation testing practices within the Asia Pacific region: results of a multicenter diagnostic survey. J Thorac Oncol 2015;10:438-445. 6. Wang S, Wang Z. EGFR mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer from mainland China and their relationships with clinicopathological features: a meta-analysis. Int J Clin Exp Med 2014;7:1967-1978. 7. Shim HS, Chung JH, Kim L, et al. Guideline Recommendations for EGFR Mutation Testing in Lung Cancer: Proposal of the Korean Cardiopulmonary Pathology Study Group. Korean J Pathol 2013;47:100-106. 8. Sculier JP, Berghmans T, Meert AP. Advances in target therapy in lung cancer. Eur Respir Rev 2015;24:23-29. 9. Fan L, Feng Y, Wan H, et al. Clinicopathological and demographical characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer patients with ALK rearrangements: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2014;9:e100866. 10. Kohno T, Nakaoku T, Tsuta K, et al. Beyond ALK-RET, ROS1 and other oncogene fusions in lung cancer. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2015;4:156-164.

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    P2.04 - Poster Session/ Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing (ID 234)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Poster
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      P2.04-008 - IGF1R Expression Is Predictive of Poor Prognosis in EGFR-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma (ID 208)

      09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): J. Chung

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background:
      Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) is a membrane receptor-type tyrosine kinase that has attracted considerable attention as a potential therapeutic target, although its clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is controversial. This study aimed to clarify the clinical significance of IGF1R expression in human NSCLC.

      Methods:
      IGFIR protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 386 patients with NSCLC who underwent surgical resection (150 squamous cell carcinomas [SqCCs] and 236 adenocarcinomas [ADCs]). Correlations of the expression of IGF1R with clinicopathological and molecular features, and prognostic significance were analyzed.

      Results:
      Membranous and cytoplasmic IGFIR expression was significantly higher in SqCCs than in ADCs. In patients with SqCC, membranous IGFIR expression was associated with lower cancer stage, and better progression-free survival (PFS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.36–0.99, p = 0.045). In patients with ADC, IGFIR expression had no significant prognostic value, but in the subgroup of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant ADC, membranous IGF1R expression was associated with vascular, lymphatic and perineural invasion, solid predominant histology, higher cancer stage, and was significantly associated with worse PFS (HR = 2.27, 95% CI: 1.30–5.48, p = 0.008).

      Conclusion:
      Lung ADC and SqCC showed distinct IGF1R expression profiles that demonstrated prognostic significance. High membranous IGF1R expression was predictive of poor PFS in EGFR-mutant lung ADC, while was predictive of better PFS in SqCC. These findings may serve to improve study design for subsequent investigations into IGF1R and NSCLC, and to select patients for future anti-IGF1R therapy.

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