Real-World Treatment Patterns and Survival Outcome in Advanced Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) Rearranged Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Survival of ALK-rearranged NSCLC patients has dramatically improved by the use of multiple ALK-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK-TKI). However, still little is known about the impact of drug sequencing and clinical features on survival in a real-world setting. Methods: Patients with stage IV ALK-rearranged NSCLC treated at six centers in Switzerland and Italy were identified and standard clinical variables collected. OS curves were constructed using the Kaplan–Meier method and compared with the log-rank test. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis was applied to determine the correlations between clinical features and OS. In four patients, biopsies were subjected to NGS. Results: One-hundred and twenty-one patients with stage IV ALK-rearranged NSCLC diagnosed between 2011 and 2016 were included. With a median follow-up time of 39.5 months, the median OS from diagnosis of stage IV disease was 48.0 months. First-line treatment consisted of an ALK-TKI in 24% of patients, with crizotinib in 83% of them. Chemotherapy as first-line treatment did not influence OS (p = 0.955). The use of more than one ALK-TKI line positively correlated with OS (p = 0.016), as well as the use of alectinib or lorlatinib in any treatment line, as compared to the use of crizotinib ± ceritinib (p = 0.022). A never smoking history was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p = 0.032). Moreover, treatment with alectinib significantly improved OS. Conclusions: Targeted treatment for ALK-positive NSCLC patients lead to prolonged OS. Smoking status was a negative independent prognostic factor in a multi-variate analysis. The use of alectinib or lorlatinib in any treatment line improved overall outcome.