Somatic Mutations and Ancestry Markers in Hispanic Lung Cancer Patients

J Thorac Oncol. 2017 Dec;12(12):1851-1856. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2017.08.019. Epub 2017 Sep 11.

Abstract

Introduction: To address the lack of genomic data from Hispanic/Latino (H/L) patients with lung cancer, the Latino Lung Cancer Registry was established to collect patient data and biospecimens from H/L patients.

Methods: This retrospective observational study examined lung cancer tumor samples from 163 H/L patients, and tumor-derived DNA was subjected to targeted-exome sequencing (>1000 genes, including EGFR, KRAS, serine/threonine kinase 11 gene [STK11], and tumor protein p53 gene [TP53]) and ancestry analysis. Mutation frequencies in this H/L cohort were compared with those in a similar cohort of non-Hispanic white (NHW) patients and correlated with ancestry, sex, smoking status, and tumor histologic type.

Results: Of the adenocarcinomas in the H/L cohort (n = 120), 31% had EGFR mutations, versus 17% in the NHW control group (p < 0.001). KRAS (20% versus 38% [p = 0.002]) and STK11 (8% versus 16% [p = 0.065]) mutations occurred at lower frequency, and mutations in TP53 occurred at similar frequency (46% versus 40% [p = 0.355]) in H/L and NHW patients, respectively. Within the Hispanic cohort, ancestry influenced the rate of TP53 mutations (p = 0.009) and may have influenced the rate of EGFR, KRAS, and STK11 mutations.

Conclusions: Driver mutations in H/L patients with lung adenocarcinoma differ in frequency from those in NHW patients associated with their indigenous American ancestry. The spectrum of driver mutations needs to be further assessed in the H/L population.

Keywords: Ancestry; EGFR mutations; Hispanic; Lung cancer.

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Hispanic or Latino
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology
  • Male
  • Mutation / genetics*
  • Retrospective Studies