Beyond Exons 19 and 21: mapping the clinical and molecular diversity of uncommon EGFR mutations in a Brazilian NSCLC cohort.
de Sousa Juliana Cordeiro JC, Nogueira Cleto C, Veloso Guilherme de Sousa GS, da Silva Emerson Lucena EL et al.
Uncommon and complex EGFR variants respond variably to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and data on their frequency in Brazil are scarce. We retrospectively analysed 141 patients with EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma at a single Northeastern Brazilian centre. All profiling used treatment-naive diagnostic specimens: next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 111 patients (78.7%) and rapid PCR or single-gene assay in 30 (21.3%). Concurrent alterations and PD-L1 were assessed where panels covered those genes. Overall survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test. Twenty patients (14.2%; 95% CI 8.9-21.1%) harboured an uncommon or complex variant, and detection depended on platform: 19 of 111 NGS-tested (17.1%) versus 1 of 30 hotspot-tested (3.3%). Exon 20 insertions predominated (8, 40%; five distinct variants), followed by exon 18 substitutions (5), compound genotypes (5) and other point mutations (2). T790M and C797S occurred de novo in two treatment-naive tumours with a classical driver. The subgroup was 85% female, median age 69.5 years. TP53 co-mutation was frequent and similar between groups (61.1% versus 58.2%; p = 1.00), whereas STK11 and KEAP1 were absent. Median overall survival was 1,375 days (95% CI 391 to not reached) with three deaths, and no difference from classical drivers was detected (p = 0.48), an underpowered result not establishing equivalence. Uncommon and complex EGFR variants accounted for 14.2% of EGFR-driven lung adenocarcinoma here, confirming previous Brazilian data with added molecular resolution. Detection was over four times as frequent with broad NGS as with hotspot testing, making comprehensive profiling prerequisite for genotype-directed treatment.