Real clinical practice in ALK-rearranged NSCLC patients: A retrospective observational study

Abstract

Background/Aim: To describe real clinical outcomes when using systemic therapy to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who have anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion gene mutation. Patients and Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review from April 2008 to March 2019 sourced from 16 medical institutes that cover a population of three million people. Results: There were 129 ALK rearranged NSCLC patients. Among them, 103 patients including 40 recurrent disease cases received ALK-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and chemotherapy. Our treatment results were comparable to previously reported clinical trials and clinical practice studies. First-line alectinib, treatment sequence of ALK-TKI followed by another ALK-TKI, and pemetrexed-containing chemotherapy contributed to the outcome of treatment. Conclusion: By arrangement of treatment such as treatment sequence of ALK-TKI and chemotherapy regimen, it might be possible to obtain a treatment outcome almost equivalent to those of clinical trials even in real clinical practice.