Younger age at diagnosis linked to increased frequency of targetable phenotype
FRIDAY, Dec. 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), younger age at diagnosis is associated with increased frequency of a targetable phenotype, according to a study published online Dec. 17 in JAMA Oncology.
Adrian G. Sacher, M.D., from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues examined the correlation between young age at diagnosis and the presence of a potentially targetable genomic alteration, disease prognosis, and natural history. Data were included for 2,237 patients with NSCLC who were genotyped between January 2002 and December 2014.
The researchers found that 87 percent of the participants had histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma, 12 percent had NSCLC not otherwise specified, and 1 percent had squamous histologic findings. Overall, 63 percent had stage IIIB or IV cancers. Gene mutations for EGFR and ALK correlated with cancer diagnosis at a younger age (P = 0.02 and P < 0.001); a similar trend was seen for ERBB2 and ROS1 (P = 0.15 and 0.10, respectively), but not for BRAF V600E (P = 0.43). Younger age correlated with an increased frequency of a targetable genotype among 1,325 patients tested for all five targetable genomic alterations (P = 0.001). The likelihood of harboring a targetable genotype was increased 59 percent among those diagnosed at age 50 years or younger.
“These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive genotyping, including next-generation sequencing, in younger patients with lung cancer,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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