Gene profile was linked to the presence of EGFR mutations.
Researchers report the discovery of a 93-gene signature that is associated with the presence of EGFR mutations in tumors from lung cancer patients and is a favorable prognostic marker in patients with early-stage disease.
Data was presented at the “AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer.” The investigators conducted mRNA expression profiling on 195 human lung adenocarcinoma samples.
They found a 93-gene signature that identified the presence of EGFR mutation. This was reportedly validated in multiple cohorts of lung-cancer patients. Furthermore, the presence of this gene signature was significantly correlated with drug sensitivity to erlotinib and gefitinib in non-small-cell lung cancer cell lines.
“We hope this mutation signature will be able to define patients with these tumor types who will then respond to EGFR inhibition,” says Pierre Saintigny, M.D., Ph.D., a research scientist at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Saintigny sees potential in the EGFR-mutation signature to help guide medical treatment decisions, to provide prognosis information beyond EGFR-mutation status, and to give some biological insights into EGFR-mutant tumors.
The EGFR-mutation signature will next be evaluated as a predictor of response in the BATTLE (biomarker-integrated approaches of targeted therapy for lung cancer elimination) I trial, which will be presented later this year.
