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D.J. Kwiatkowski



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    MINI 09 - Drug Resistance (ID 107)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI09.06 - Oncogenic Drivers including RET and ROS1 plus PTEN Loss and MET by IHC in Patients with Lung Adenocarcinomas: Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium 2.0 (ID 2114)

      17:15 - 17:20  |  Author(s): D.J. Kwiatkowski

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      The Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) 1.0 demonstrated multiplexed genomic platforms can assay 10 oncogenic drivers in tumor specimens from patients with lung adenocarcinomas. 28% of the patients with oncogenic drivers could be effectively targeted. The survival of these 275 patients treated with targeted agents was longer than the patients who were not treated with a targeted agent (Kris and Johnson JAMA 2014). The efficiency of Next-Generation Sequencing enables more comprehensive testing of additional aberrations with less tumor tissue. LCMC 2.0 was initiated to test tumor specimens for 12 oncogenic drivers and to provide the results to clinicians for treatment decisions and research purposes.

      Methods:
      The 16 site LCMC 2.0 is testing tumors from 1000 patients with lung adenocarcinomas in CLIA laboratories for mutations in KRAS, EGFR, HER2, BRAF, PIK3CA, AKT1, and NRAS, MET DNA amplification, and rearrangements in ALK as done in LCMC 1.0. The new genes that were added because of emerging information about potential therapeutic targets include MAP2K1 mutations, RET and ROS1 rearrangements, PTEN (MAb 138G4) loss and MET (MAb SP44) overexpression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). All patients were diagnosed with stage IIIB/IV lung adenocarcinoma after May 2012, had a performance status 0-2, and available tumor tissue.

      Results:
      Of 1073 patients registered, data is now reported for 759. The median age of the patients is 65 (23-90). The population includes 369 (55%) women; 164 (24%) never smokers, 399 (59%) former smokers, and 73 (11%) current smokers; 26 (4%) Asians, 58 (9%) African American, 548 (81%) Caucasian, and 43 (6%) of other races. As of April 2015 information on genomic and immunohistochemical changes for 675 eligible patients were recorded in our database. Alterations in oncogenic drivers were found in 45% of samples as follows: 159 KRAS (24%), 88 EGFR (13%), 25 ALK (4%), 19 BRAF (3%), 17 PIK3CA (3%), 9 HER2 (1%), 4 NRAS (1%) 0 AKT1, 28 had ≥ 2 findings (4%) and 25 MET DNA amplification (4%). The new genes studied in LCMC 2.0 revealed 1 MAP2K1 mutation (<1%), 19 RET (3%) and 9 ROS (1%) rearrangements, 94 had PTEN loss (14%), and 362 with MET overexpression (54%). As expected, PIK3CA mutations and PTEN loss by IHC were mutually exclusive in 109 of 111 (98%) patients’ tumors. Seventeen of the 23 (74%) with MET DNA amplification studied thus far with IHC had MET overexpression. Next-Generation platforms were used at 13 of 16 LCMC 2.0 sites.

      Conclusion:
      Next-Generation Sequencing is rapidly becoming routine practice at LCMC 2.0 centers with use going from 0 to 81% of sites since 2012. LCMC 2.0 identified additional targets (RET and ROS1 rearrangements and PTEN loss). PIK3CA and PTEN were largely mutually exclusive and an actionable oncogenic driver has been identified in the 45% of initial lung adenocarcinoma specimens. Supported by Free to Breathe

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    MINI 13 - Genetic Alterations and Testing (ID 120)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI13.03 - Characterization of MET Gene and MET Protein Expression in Lung Cancer (ID 2155)

      10:55 - 11:00  |  Author(s): D.J. Kwiatkowski

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Activation of the MET signaling pathway can propel the growth of cancer cells in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Increased MET gene by amplification and/or polysomy can cause MET protein overexpression; less common causes include mutations, translocations, and alternative RNA splicing. Clinical trials using MET as a biomarker for selection of lung cancer patients who might most benefit from targeted therapy have experienced variable outcomes. We aimed to characterize the relationship between MET protein overexpression and MET amplification or mean copy number alterations in patients with NSCLC.

      Methods:
      The Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) is performing an ongoing study of biomarkers with patients with NSCLC from 16 cancer center sites across the United States. For this analysis, 403 cases had complete data for MET protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC, monoclonal antibody SP44, Ventana) and MET gene amplification by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH, MET/CEP7 ratio). Pathologists evaluated MET expression using the H-score, a semi-quantitative assessment of the percentage of tumor cells with no, faint, moderate, and/or strong staining, ranging from 0-300. Spearman's correlation was used to analyze the correlation between MET protein expression (H-scores) and FISH results (MET/CEP7 ratio (N=403) and MET copy number (N=341). Protein overexpression using 5 different cut-offs was compared with amplification defined as MET/CEP7 ≥ 2.2 and high mean copy number defined as ≥ 5 MET gene copies per cell using the Fisher’s exact test. Cox Proportional Hazards models were built to examine the associations of these different definitions of positivity with prognosis, adjusting for stage of disease.

      Results:
      MET protein expression was significantly correlated with MET copy numbers (r=0.17, p=0.0025), but not MET/CEP7 ratio (r=-0.013, p=0.80). No significant association was observed between protein overexpression using a commonly used definition for MET positivity (“at least moderate staining in ≥ 50% tumor cells”) and MET amplification (p=0.47) or high mean copy number (p=0.09). A definition for MET protein overexpression as “≥ 30% tumor cells with strong staining” was significantly associated with both MET amplification (p=0.03) and high mean copy number (p=0.007), but a definition of “≥ 10% tumor cells with strong staining” was not significantly associated with either. Definitions of protein overexpression based on high H-scores (≥200 or ≥250) were associated with high MET mean copy numbers (p=0.03 and 0.0008, respectively), but not amplification (p=0.46 and 0.12, respectively). All 5 definitions of MET protein overexpression demonstrated a significant association with worse prognosis by survival analyses (p-values ranged from 0.001 to 0.03). High MET copy number (p=0.045) was associated with worse prognosis, but MET amplification was not (p=0.07).

      Conclusion:
      Evaluation of NSCLC specimens from LCMC sites confirms that MET protein expression is correlated with high MET copy number and protein overexpression is associated with worse prognosis. Definitions of MET protein overexpression as “an H-score ≥250” and “≥30% tumor cells with strong staining” were significantly associated with high mean MET copy number. It may be worth reevaluating the performance of MET as a biomarker by different definitions of positivity to predict response to MET-targeted therapies.

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    ORAL 37 - Novel Targets (ID 146)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      ORAL37.07 - Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium Pathologist Panel Evaluation of MET Protein (ID 2129)

      17:50 - 18:01  |  Author(s): D.J. Kwiatkowski

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      MET is a receptor tyrosine kinase with frequently activated signaling in lung cancers. Multiple studies indicate that MET overexpression correlates with poor clinical prognosis. Tumors with MET amplification and overexpression may respond better to MET inhibitors than tumors with low expression. The prevalence of MET overexpression in lung cancer cohorts has varied from 20%-80%, as has the proportion of patient’s testing positive for prospective clinical trials with entry based on MET overexpression. The Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) Pathologist Panel endeavored to standardize evaluation of MET protein expression with “Round Robin” conferences.

      Methods:
      508 FFPE non-small cell lung cancer specimens were stained by immunohistochemistry for MET protein expression (SP44 antibody, Ventana). Seven pathologists from LCMC sites with specialized training in MET scoring evaluated 78 Aperio-scanned images of MET-stained slides in two successive rounds of 39 different cases per round. The percentage of tumor cells with membranous and/or cytoplasmic staining at different intensities were evaluated with H-scores ranging from 0 to 300. Overall group and individual pathologist’s scores were compared with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Between rounds, a “Round Robin” teleconference was conducted to review discordant cases and improve consistency of scoring. Steps to improve scoring included: review of a Roche MET training document, sharing pictures of cases with concordant scores (Figure 1), and provision of H&E images for the second round to facilitate identification of tumor areas. Figure 1



      Results:
      The overall average MET H-score for the 78 cases was 165.3 (H-score range: 42.5-279.7). The average H-score was <125 for 14 specimens, 125-175 for 35 specimens, and >175 for 29 specimens. The overall group ICC comparing the consistency of H-scores from all 7 pathologists improved from 0.50 (95% confidence interval: 0.37-0.64, “fair” correlation) for the first scoring round to 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.64-0.83, “good” correlation) for the second round. A comparison of the individual pathologist’s ICCs demonstrated improved individual scoring consistency for all seven pathologists between rounds with an average of 0.64 (“moderate” correlation, range 0.43-0.76) for the first round and 0.82 (“almost perfect” correlation, range 0.75-0.93) for the second round.

      Conclusion:
      Development of standardized, reproducible strategies for evaluation of complex biomarkers, such as MET, are critical to clinical trial design. The consistency of scoring for MET protein expression and other biomarkers may be improved by continuous training and communication between pathologists with easy access to H&E images and other visual aids.

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