Evaluation of NTRK expression and fusions in a large cohort of early-stage lung cancer

Tropomyosin receptor kinases (TRK) are attractive targets for cancer therapy. As TRK-inhibitors are approved for all solid cancers with detectable fusions involving the Neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK)-genes, there has been an increased interest in optimizing testing regimes. In this project, we wanted to find the prevalence of NTRK fusions in a cohort of various histopathological types of early-stage lung cancer in Norway and to investigate the association between TRK protein expression and specific histopathological types, including their molecular and epidemiological characteristics. We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a screening tool for TRK expression, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as confirmatory tests for underlying NTRK-fusion. Among 940 cases, 43 (4.6%) had positive TRK IHC, but in none of these could a NTRK fusion be confirmed by NGS or FISH. IHC-positive cases showed various staining intensities and patterns including cytoplasmatic or nuclear staining. IHC-positivity was more common in squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) (10.3%) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (40.0%), where the majority showed heterogeneous staining intensity. In comparison, only 1.1% of the adenocarcinomas were positive. IHC-positivity was also more common in men, but this association could be explained by the dominance of LUSC in TRK IHC-positive cases. Protein expression was not associated with differences in time to relapse or overall survival. Our study indicates that NTRK fusion is rare in early-stage lung cancer. Due to the high level of false positive cases with IHC, Pan-TRK IHC is less suited as a screening tool for NTRK-fusions in LUSC and adenoid cystic carcinoma.