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D. Flex



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    MINI 04 - Clinical Care of Lung Cancer (ID 102)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Advanced Diseases - NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI04.09 - The Impact of Next-Generation Sequencing on Clinical Decisions in Lung Cancer (ID 2978)

      17:30 - 17:35  |  Author(s): D. Flex

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      In the last decade, important advances have been made in understanding genetic and molecular mechanisms of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) tumor development. This has led to the creation of innovative, targeted drugs that significantly prolong survival in advanced patients. Recent data shows that 63% of NSCLC tumors harbor at least one activating driver mutation, including treatable mutations such as RET, HER2 and ROS1 gene mutations, besides the regularly screened ALK and EGFR genes that account for 23% of the patients. Clinical cancer genomic profiling tests based on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are capable to reveal clinically actionable genetic alterations in up to three times the number of actionable alterations detected by current diagnostic tests. However, there is no data regarding the true impact of these tests on clinical decisions in lung cancer. In this study, our objective is to evaluate the impact of NGS-based genetic profiling tests on treatment strategy in NSCLC patients in the real life setting, considering the additional diagnostic tests performed. Based on clinical experience from Israel, NGS-based tests actively change treatment plans, but the effect size is unknown and merits further investigation.

      Methods:
      In this retrospective study, data is collected from patient files at the Thoracic Cancer Unit of Davidoff Cancer Center, Rabin Medical Center, Israel. The current study population is 78 NSCLC patients who performed NGS-based genetic profiling tests.

      Results:
      Out of 78 patients, 58 patient files have already been reviewed and 6 were excluded. Treatment decision change rate after NGS testing was 33% (17 out of 52 patients were treated with a targeted therapy - 24% of the current study population). Interestingly, 9 patients became EGFR and ALK positive by NGS after the previous standard local molecular testing was negative. Based on the RECIST criteria of response evaluation, 41% of the patients had a partial response after switching to targeted therapy, 23% had a complete response, 18% experienced progressive disease and 18% were not evaluated yet. Survival rates will be calculated further in the study based on data availability.

      Conclusion:
      The use of NGS for tumor classification and treatment planning holds a great potential for improving patient life quality and survival. In this study, we aimed to determine its clinical impact in the real life setting in the treatment of lung cancer. Our partial results show that in addition to performing standard molecular testing for NSCLC, almost a quarter of the patients can be identified having an actionable driver mutation and switched to targeted therapy. Most of these patients showed a positive response to treatment. Although this topic needs to be further assessed in large randomized controlled trials, these positive results emphasize the importance of upfront multiplex testing or suggest such technology as a reflex test in places where the primary kits are done first in sake of cost-benefit.

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