Molecular Landscape Analysis and Clinical and Therapeutic Implications for NSCLC Patients With Rare Mutations

Lung cancer is the most common primary cancer of the lung and is responsible for the ever increasing number of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Especially in China, the burden of lung cancer has been rising rapidly due to its large and growing population. Histologically, approximately 85% of lung cancers are non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Molecular targeted therapy has been shown to dramatically improve the quality of life and survival outcomes of NSCLC patients. One of the most important targeted drugs in NSCLC has been the epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), while there exists some other rare targetable mutation in NSCLC. Emerging evidence underlines that, rather than a single point mutation, some rare mutations present with a wide array of mutations, essentially in NSCLC.

Different rare mutations with NSCLC have divergent clinical and therapeutic implications with a particular distinction. Therefore, there is an unmet need for more effective therapies for NSCLC with rare mutations. In summary, identification of genetic alterations in NSCLC with rare mutations is increasingly essential to perform molecular diagnostics and individualized treatments. This project aims to create a registry of patients with NSCLC with rare mutations to further the characterization of molecular alterations and develop (novel) treatments based on the detection.