Author of

• 10557

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  P1.05 - Poster Session 1 - Preclinical Models of Therapeutics/Imaging (ID 156)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Biology
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/28/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 10564

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    P1.05-007 - Large scale establishment of genetically diverse patient-derived primary tumor xenografts from resected early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (ID 1539)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): C. To
    • Abstract

    Background
    The fidelity of established NSCLC cell line models to reflect patient tumors has been challenged. Patient-derived primary tumor xenografts (PTXGs) established directly from patient tumors in immunodeficient mice reproduce closely the histology of the primary tumors, thus are potentially better preclinical models to investigate novel therapies. We previously reported that early stage NSCLC patients whose tumors form PTXGs have significantly greater risk of relapse after surgery (Clin Cancer Res 2011; 17: 134-141). We report here a more extended analysis of clinical-molecular-pathological features of early stage NSCLC that are associated with engraftment and its impact on patient outcome.

    Methods
    Resected NSCLC tumors were harvested within 30 minutes after surgery and were implanted into severely immunodeficient mice to establish PTXGs. Tumors that grew were propagated for up to 3 passages. The mutational profiles of the primary tumors were assessed by the MassARRAY platform that included 133 mutations with ‘putative’ driver function, which have been reported in COSMIC database as recurrent in NSCLC. All identified mutations were verified by direct sequencing in both the primary and PTXG tumors. Engraftment rate among clinical factors were tested using the Fisher’s exact or Mann-Whitney tests. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate 3-year overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) probabilities. The effect of engraftment on OS and DFS adjusting for clinical variables was assessed using a Cox proportional hazards model.

    Results
    From April 2005 to December 2010, 261 rigorously verified resected primary non-carcinoid NSCLCs were engrafted; 38 xenografts that were lymphoma were excluded from further analysis. For the remaining 223 primaries, 101 (45.3%) successfully engrafted and formed PTXG lines. Engraftment rates were 33.8% (48/142) for adenocarcinoma (AdC), 67.7% (42/62) for squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC), 66.7% (4/6) for large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, and 53.8% (7/13) for others. The tumors forming PTXGs were more likely to be poorly differentiated (p=0.00012) and of larger tumor size and higher pT stage (p<0.0001), but were not correlated with the pN stage. Among 95/101 (94.1%) PTXG cases profiled for mutations, 6 had mutations in the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain, 18 in KRAS/HRAS, 5 in PIK3CA, 2 in paxillin and 1 in STK11/LKB gene; 56 (62.2%) were negative for mutations. The median follow-up time was 2.7 years (range 0.04 – 7.5 years). Patients whose tumors engrafted had decreased DFS (HR 2.68, 95% CI 1.16-4.60, Wald p<0.0001) and OS (HR 3.14, 95% CI 1.56-6.33, Wald p=0.0014). Significantly poorer survival was maintained in AdC. Among 33 patients with EGFR mutation, only 6 (18.2%) engrafted. Engraftment was associated with significantly poorer DFS (HR 4.76; 1.43-15.86, log-rank p=0.005) and OS (HR 8.55, 95% CI 0.77-94.3, log-rank p=0.035) in this population.

    Conclusion
    The ability to form PTXGs of early stage NSCLC is confirmed as a very strong poor prognostic marker. Although EGFR mutant tumors usually do not engraft, engraftment of EGFR mutant tumors is associated with poor patient survival. PTXGs appear to represent biologically aggressive NSCLC.