MET Exon 14 Skipping in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

© AlphaMed Press 2016.Background. Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) harboring specific genetic alterations can be highly sensitive to targeted therapies. Material sand Methods. We performed a targeted rearrangement assay on 54 NSCLCs across all stages that were from patients who were never smokers and did not have driver mutations. Because MET exon 14 skipping was the most frequent alteration found, we surveyed the results for MET exon 14 skipping at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) since the inclusion of this alteration into our current molecular profiling panel. Results. In a cohort of 54 never-smokers with lung cancers that were wild-type for known driver mutations, MET exon 14 skipping was the most frequentlyrecurringalteration,occurringin10cancers (19%). Clinical testing at MGH via our next-generation sequencing (NGS) and NGS-rearrangement panels showed an additional 16 casesofMETexon14skipping, for an overall estimated frequency of 5.6%. A clinical case of a patient with MET exon 14 skipping treated with the MET inhibitor crizotinib is also described. Conclusion. METexon14skippingisa targetable gene alteration found in NSCLC. Patients with these alterations may respond well to MET inhibition.