Lung Cancer Frontiers the Forum for Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer
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LungSummer 2009 | NO 37 1 Cancer FRONTIERS Lung Cancer FRONTIERS The Forum for Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer EGFR Testing in Lung Cancer is Ready for Prime Time By Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein is widely expressed in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). The gene is sometimes amplified, but it is often increased in copy number and, less frequently, mutated with activating mutations. EGFR-directed therapies include the reversible specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) gefitinib (Iressa®) and erlotinib (Tarceva®) and the monoclonal antibody cetuximab (Erbitux®). Also, more recently, irreversible pan-Her inhibitors were introduced into clinical trials. In unselected patients treated with EGFR inhibitors, a minority will achieve an objective Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, response, but many more will have symptomatic improvement with stable disease. Large, is Professor of Medicine and randomized studies failed to demonstrate any additional clinical benefit by adding an Pathology, University of Colorado EGFR TKI to chemotherapy in first line treatment. However, major breakthroughs in Denver School of Medicine, University patient selection were made by studying tumor specimens from patients in these trials. of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, CO. He is a member of the Lung Many objective responders had EGFR mutations occurring specifically in exons 19 and 21 1 Cancer Frontiers Editorial Board. associated with never-smoker status, Asian ethnicity and adenocarcinoma histology . Single- arm studies selecting patients for these mutations showed response rates and progression free survival times superior to those seen with chemotherapy2. These studies led to recently The purpose of Lung Cancer reported randomized phase II and III trials in chemo-naive patients with advanced NSCLC. Frontiers is to acquire and In one of the largest trials (IPASS), 1,217 NSCLC patients of Asian ethnicity, never or disseminate new knowledge light smoking status, and adenocarcinoma histology received either gefitinib or multi-agent about lung cancer and how chemotherapy3. Patients with EGFR mutations treated with gefitinib had much higher it can be most quickly and response rates and longer progression free survival than patients treated with chemotherapy. effectively diagnosed and In marked contrast, patients without EGFR mutations fared much better on chemotherapy treated. than on gefitinib, and the response rate to gefitinib was only 1%. Thus, the molecular Access current and past features (EGFR mutations) of the tumor trump the clinical features, and the therapy of issues of Lung Cancer choice for patients with EGFR mutations in this setting seems to be gefitinib. Frontiers via the Internet at Are these findings similar in Caucasians and with erlotinib? A randomized phase II trial in LungCancerFrontiers.org Caucasians randomized chemo-naive NSCLC patients to erlotinib alone or chemotherapy plus erlotinib. In patients with EGFR mutations, the response rates and progression free continued on page 2 In this issue 1-3 EGFR TESTING IN LUNG CANCER 4-7 SelectIONS FROM THE PEER REVIEWED LITERATURE 7 LUNG CANCER MEETINGS 8 CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION EVENTS 2 Lung Cancer FRONTIERS EGFR Testing in Lung Cancer is Ready for Prime Time continued from page 1 survival favored erlotinib alone, whereas erlotinib alone The results of SWOG 0342 were quite compelling and led was inferior in those without these mutations4. Thus, both to the design of the SWOG 0819 study. SWOG 0819 is a gefitinib and erlotinib seem superior to chemotherapy in randomized phase III trial which will prospectively validate patients with EGFR mutations, and such testing is now EGFR FISH as a predictive biomarker in NSCLC patients ready for prime time! In most studies, direct sequencing is treated with chemotherapy and bevacizumab (if eligible), used to detect EGFR mutations. The sensitivity of these with or without cetuximab. In immunohistochemistry methods is about 10%, i.e. a mutation can be detected in based selected patients, cetuximab added to chemotherapy specimens having 10% tumor cells. Newer techniques using in the large, randomized FLEX study showed significant amplification may be more sensitive in detecting mutations in survival benefit with a Hazard Ratio (HR) = 0.87 (p = 0.04) specimens having less than 1% tumor cells. While the optimal and a difference in median survival of 10.1 months with test for mutation detection has yet to be determined, direct chemotherapy alone compared to 11.3 months with added sequencing can be recommended in routine practice. cetuximab9. In unselected patients, cetuximab is associated with minimal clinical benefit, as demonstrated in the BMS- High EGFR gene copy number determined by fluorescence 099 study10. Additional trials evaluating EGFR gene status by in situ hybridization (FISH) occurs in 30-50% of NSCLC FISH in patients considered for cetuximab is a high priority. 5 patients and about 10% have gene amplification . High EGFR Final biomarker analysis from the FLEX and BMS-099 gene copy number/amplification predicted superior outcome studies with cetuximab is underway. in NSCLC patients who previously received chemotherapy and were randomized to receive erlotinib versus placebo, or K-ras mutations occur in 15-20% of the tumors from gefitinib versus placebo6,7. However, EGFR FISH did not NSCLC patients and are associated with low response rates to predict a superior outcome in patients randomized to gefitinib EGFR inhibitors. In lung cancer, K-ras mutations are rarely versus chemotherapy, in part because high gene copy number present together with EGFR mutations. However, despite predicted a superior outcome in both groups. While EGFR the low response rates in patients with these mutations, the mutations might not be expected to predict outcome with presence of K-ras mutations has not been able to predict cetuximab, because the receptor is active even in the absence significantly inferior survival outcomes in NSCLC patients of the ligand, EGFR FISH predicted a superior outcome treated with erlotinib or cetuximab. Thus, the clinical after cetuximab in the SWOG 0342 trial8. This randomized relevance of K-ras testing in NSCLC is still unclear. phase II study of chemotherapy with sequential or concurrent cetuximab was conducted to determine whether one schedule A serum proteomic classifier can be used to select patients or the other was preferable for subsequent phase III testing with a good or a poor outcome after EGFR inhibitor 11 against chemotherapy alone. Two hundred and twenty-nine therapy . This classifier is today commercialized as the ® patients with advanced NSCLC were enrolled. EGFR FISH Veristrat (Biodesix, Broomfield, CO). Additional prospective was performed by using the Colorado criteria, and increased studies evaluating this method are in progress. EGFR copy number by FISH was associated with a 100% Which material is suitable for EGFR testing? Mutation prolongation in progression free survival and overall survival testing is DNA based. How can we obtain sufficient DNA for compared to the EGFR FISH negative patients. Objective this testing and how can tumor DNA be separated from non- responses were dramatically higher in FISH positive patients tumor DNA? Micro dissection of specimens is generally done, (45%) versus FISH negative patients (26%), while disease but it is labor intensive. Mutation assays for testing circulating control rate was statistically superior (81% versus 55%) in the tumor cells in blood have been developed12. EGFR mutations FISH positive group. Patients with FISH positive tumors had are detected in both circulating DNA and circulating tumor a median progression free survival of 6 months compared to 3 cells from NSCLC patients whose tumors have EGFR months for FISH negative patients (p = 0.0008). The median mutations. However, the sensitivity of EGFR mutation overall survival was 15 months for FISH positive patients versus detection in peripheral blood is only about 70%, while the 7 months for FISH negative patients (p = 0.04). specificity is near 100% when compared to tumor Lung 3 Cancer FRONTIERS EGFR Testing in Lung Cancer is Ready for Prime Time continued from page 2 tissue detection. While EGFR testing in peripheral blood is the association between the biomarker expression and the promising, it is still the focus on ongoing research and is not sensitivity to the EGFR TKIs based on a comparison of EGFR yet ready for clinical practice. expression in pretreatment specimens compared to response and outcome of EGFR TKIs given as second or third line Most cancer patients are diagnosed with advanced disease therapy. A true biological association to second line therapy based on a small biopsy or a fine needle aspiration. The requires that first line therapy does not affect the biomarker success rates for obtaining sufficient tissue for biomarker expression, which may not be true. The optimal situation assessment range from 30-80%. Factors that may affect would be to assess biomarkers in a specimen obtained just success are multiple: the requirement of tissue quality for before the relevant therapy is given, but this could be difficult the specific biomarker assay, investigational site capacity in clinical practice. Hopefully, that will be easier in the future and infrastructure, the physician-patient dialogue, and the when patients have a better understanding of the importance of understanding of importance of sufficient tissue. A strong biomarker determination