Clinical and molecular characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer patients from rural Maine.

Abstract

e18237 Background: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is the most common malignancy worldwide and the leading cause of malignancy-related mortality in the United States. The state of Maine in particular, has one of the highest rates of lung cancer in the country. Methods: We reviewed all NSCLC patients (adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell (SC) histology) diagnosed between January 2017 and June 2018 at Northern Light Cancer Institute. 261 patients with clinical follow-up were identified. We correlated their clinical characteristics with molecular abnormalities identified by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Fluorescence in situ hybridization, PD-L1 status by immunohistochemistry, disease-free and overall survival. Results: 210 patients had AC and 51 SC. They were evenly split between men and women. The median age at diagnosis was 68 years. 99% of patients were Caucasian. 15 patients were never smokers, the rest were equally divided between active and previous smokers. 44% had early stage disease (I/II) and 56% had late stage disease (III/IV) on presentation. 36.4% had a PD-L1 high status. The frequencies of the molecular aberrations identified in AC and SC are listed in the table below: Treatment differed by stage, including surgery/Radiation +/- adjuvant chemotherapy for early stage disease, definitive chemo-radiation followed by immunotherapy for stage III disease. Stage IV patients were treated with immunotherapy, combination chemo-immunotherapy, targeted therapy, palliative radiation and hospice referral. After a median follow-up of 10.6 months, overall survival (OS) was 66%. Disease free survival (DFS) was 33%. Using univariate (chi-square), multivariate (logistic regression) and Kaplan-Meier (log rank) analyses, we identified that in addition to a high clinical stage, which was associated with shorter OS and DFS, high PD-L1 status, and the presence of p53 mutation, were independent predictors of shorter OS, and p53 mutation of shorter DFS. Conclusions: NGS-based molecular testing deployed in real-time non-academic setting proved to be a valuable tool to identify therapeutic and prognostic targets in NSCLC. Besides those endorsed by the NCCN guidelines, p53 mutation is a common abnormality associated with adverse outcomes. While high PD-L1 expression is a desirable immunotherapy marker, its presence also predicted adverse overall outcomes in our patients.[Table: see text]