We describe results of a program utilizing routine biopsy post-progression in ALK+ patients for clinical and research purposes.Since 2014, ALK+ lung cancer patients treated at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have undergone routine biopsies at disease progression time points upon failure of an ALK-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for both clinical purposes and research purposes, in particular to obtain tissue for primary derived xenograft (PDX) engraftment. The study found that routine combined clinical and research biopsy of ALK+ patients at time of TKI failure helped to identify these recent cases of neuroendocrine transformation as a possible mode of resistance and provide tissue for model development. This is the first time that ALK+ transformation to large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is reported in the literature. (PP, AFF, SNMF, LN contributed equally). READ ARTICLE
Journal of Thoracic Oncology DOI:10.1016/j.jtho.2019.08.651
Authors: P. Pal, A. Fares, D. Patel, E. Stewart, N. Perera-Low, A. Grindley, F. Allison, N. Pham, R. Shi, N. Leighl, F. Shepherd, P. Bradbury, A. Sacher, P. Rogalla, K. Yasufuku, M. Cabanero, M. Tsao, G. Liu, S. Martins-Filho, L. Nguyen