Prognostic influence of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation and radiological ground glass appearance in patients with early-stage lung adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES\nThe ADAURA demonstrated the efficacy of osimertinib as adjuvant therapy in patients with resected stage IB-IIIA adenocarcinoma harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. However, it is controversial whether adjuvant therapy should be applied to all these patients because of their heterogeneities. This study aimed to examine the influence of GGO and EGFR mutations on the prognosis and to identify optimal targets for the development of perioperative therapy.\n\n\nMATERIAL AND METHODS\nAmong the patients who underwent complete resection between 2003 and 2014 and had pathological stage IA3-IIA adenocarcinoma, 505 consecutive patients were examined for EGFR mutation status. The prognosis was analyzed among the clinicopathological factors including EGFR status and presence or absence of GGO.\n\n\nRESULTS\nOf the 489 patients, 193 (39.5%) showed EGFR mutations. The recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) of the EGFR mutant were slightly better than those of the EGFR wild type. There was no difference in RFS and OS between EGFR mutant and wild type in patients with GGO; however, EGFR mutant showed better OS than EGFR wild type in patients without GGO. The presence of GGO was a strong independent prognostic predictor in OS and RFS, but EGFR mutations was not predictors. In patients without GGO, EGFR mutants showed slightly higher recurrence, especially with a hazard ratio of 1.427 in stage IB.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nAdenocarcinoma with GGO show a very good prognosis, so may not require adjuvant therapy. It will be necessary to further develop perioperative therapy in patients with poor prognosis.