Influence of EGFR mutational status on metastatic behavior in non squamous non small cell lung cancer

Abstract

// Alessandro Russo 1 , Tindara Franchina 1 , Giuseppina Rosaria Rita Ricciardi 1 , Caterina Fanizza 2 , Antonino Scimone 1 , Giuseppe Chiofalo 1 , Antonio Giordano 3, 4 , Vincenzo Adamo 1 1 Medical Oncology Unit A.O. Papardo & Department of Human Pathology University of Messina, Italy 2 Fondazione Mario Negri Sud, Santa Maria Imbaro, Chieti, Italy 3 Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena and Istituto Toscano Tumori (ITT), Siena, Italy 4 Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Center for Biotechnology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia PA, USA Correspondence to: Vincenzo Adamo, email: vadamo@unime.it Keywords: NSCLC, EGFR mutations, metastatic spread, EGFR WT, brain metastases Received: November 10, 2016     Accepted: December 01, 2016     Published: January 02, 2017 ABSTRACT Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutated Non Small Cell Lung Cancers (NSCLCs) are a molecularly subgroup of patients with peculiar clinic-pathological characteristics. Previous studies have suggested a possible interaction between oncogene status and metastatic behavior in non squamous NSCLCs with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to compare the different metastatic patterns, at baseline and during the course of the disease, in a cohort of 137 Caucasian patients with non-squamous NSCLC according to the EGFR mutational status and survival differences according to the different metastatic behavior. We observed unique metastatic distributions between EGFR-mutated and EGFR wild type non-squamous NSCLCs. These data support the hypothesis that tumor bio-molecular characteristics and genotype may influence the metastatic process in NSCLC and might help the development of enrichment strategies for tumor genotyping in these tumors, especially in the presence of limited tissue availability.