Efficacy of Targeted Inhibitors in Metastatic Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma With or Alterations.

INTRODUCTION

The efficacy of targeted therapies in oncogene-driven lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) has been well established; however, the benefit for -mutant or -rearranged lung squamous cell carcinomas (LUSCs) is less known, partially owing to the rarity of the incidence.

METHODS

We reviewed the database of the MD Anderson Cancer Center and identified metastatic LUSC with classic or alterations.

RESULTS

There were eight patients with -mutant LUSC (median age = 58 y) and six patients with LUSC (median age = 50 y) who received tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that were identified. Of the 14 patients, 11 (79%) were females and 12 (86%) were never smokers, similar to the demographics of or LUAD. With TKI treatment, seven of eight cases of LUSC and four of six cases of LUSC achieved partial response or stable disease, but the progression-free survival was 4.9 months and 2.9 months for -mutant and -rearranged LUSC, respectively. In addition, we compared comutation profile of -mutant LUAD (The Cancer Genome Atlas, n = 46) versus LUSC (n = 19) and found that the comutation patterns are more consistent with squamous disease with a higher incidence of ( = 0.02) and or ( = 0.04) alterations.

CONCLUSIONS

or alterations occur in patients with LUSC, especially never-smoker females. TKI treatments render clinical benefit in disease control, but the duration was considerably truncated compared with those historically observed in LUAD.