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ALK and EGFR in Lung Adenocarcinomas

Studying intratumoral genetic heterogeneity

Publish date:: October 6, 2015

Intratumoral genetic heterogeneity was demonstrated to coexist with histologic heterogeneity in both single-driver and ALK/EGFR coaltered lung adenocarcinomas (LADCs), according to a study of 629 patients with LADCs. Researchers found:

• Among the 629 patients, 30 had ALK fusions, 364 had EGFR mutations, and 2 had ALK fusions coexisting with EGFR mutations.

• Intratumoral heterogeneity of ALK fusions were seen in 9 patients.

• In the 2 patients with ALK/EGFR coaltered status, genetic intratumoral heterogeneity was seen both between different growth patterns and within the same growth pattern.

• Relative abundance of ALK and EGFR alterations was different in the same captured area.

• ALK fusions were positively associated with a micropapillary pattern, but negatively associated with a lepidic pattern, although they appeared to be more common in acinar-predominant LADCs.

Citation: Cal W, Lin D, Wu C, et al. Intratumoral heterogeneity of ALK-rearranged and ALK/EGFR coaltered lung adenocarcinoma. [Published online ahead of print September 28, 2015]. J Clin Oncol. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2014.58.8293.

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