Few studies have been reported on acquired anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients were screened after resistance to EGFR TKIs from September 2017 to December 2018 at the Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute. Both EGFR mutation and ALK rearrangement were tested by next-generation sequencing (NGS). Acquired ALK rearrangement was defined as positive ALK rearrangement after resistance to EGFR TKIs, but negative result detected by NGS at the baseline of EGFR TKI treatments.The frequency of acquired ALK rearrangement is similar in EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinomas after resistance to the first-, second-, or third-generation EGFR TKIs. The majority of acquired ALK-fusion partners are non-EML4. Combination of EGFR TKIs and ALK inhibitors might be a strategy to overcome such resistance. READ ARTICLE
Journal of Thoracic Oncology DOI:10.1016/j.jtho.2019.08.1190
Authors: Q. Wang, R. Chen, J. Kang, H. Chen, B. Wang, Z. Wang, Q. Zhou, Y. Wu, J. Yang