Patients with NSCLC may display a low ratio of p.T790M vs. activating EGFR mutations in plasma at disease progression: implications for personalised treatment

Introduction: NSCLC harboring activating mutations of EGFR is highly sensitive to first-line EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but drug resistance depending on the EGFR mutation p.T790M will occur in about 50-60% of patients. Detailed information on the amount of p.T790M plasmatic level associated with resistance to EGFR-TKIs and guidance to treatment with p.T790M-effective TKI depending on these levels, is lacking.

Methods: This study enrolled p.T790M-positive patients (n=49) affected by EGFR-mutated NSCLC at progression to first-line EGFR-TKIs and, in selected cases (n=5), after second-line treatment with osimertinib. Cell-free circulating tumor DNA (cftDNA) was extracted from plasma and the quantitative analysis of EGFR ex19del, p.L858R and p.T790M was performed by digital droplet PCR.

Results: The mean amount of mutated alleles at progression to first-line EGFR-TKIs was 108,492 copies/ml for ex19del, 97,336 copies/ml for p.L858R, but only 8,754 copies/ml for p.T790M. There was no significant correlation between progression-free survival and the ratio of p.T790M over EGFR activating mutations. The analysis of cftDNA in 5 patients treated with osimertinib revealed a marked decrease of all EGFR mutant alleles.

Conclusions: The amount of p.T790M in plasma can be much lower than activating EGFR mutations. Despite this finding, osimertinib is effective in p.T790M-positive patients. These results indicate that clones driving resistance to EGFR-TKIs represent a minority among cells bearing activating EGFR-mutations. In addition, the identification of a threshold level of p.T790M is not a strict requirement for the selection of patients to be treated with osimertinib, since treatment showed a decrease in all EGFR mutated cells.