Dr. Carbone on Acquired Resistance to Osimertinib in NSCLC

David P. Carbone, MD, PhD, director of the Thoracic Oncology Center; a professor in the Division of Medical Oncology; co-leader of the Translational Therapeutics Program; and Barbara J. Bonner Chair in Lung Cancer Research, at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—The James, discusses a study evaluating acquired resistance to osimertinib (Tagrisso) in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A retrospective multicenter study of lung cancer patients who developed resistance to osimertinib was conducted. Genomic profiling was performed for all patients through the use of targeted next-generation sequencing that encompassed 59-1021 cancer-related genes. All of the patients in that study had EGFR mutations and were treated with TKIs, but it is a mystery why some patients experienced very short responses, while others experienced very long responses, says Carbone. Specifically, some responses lasted for just a few months, while others persisted for many years.

One question raised by this study has to do with why the tumor becomes resistant after these therapies, adds Carbone. The goal of that study was to investigate the mutational landscape of these tumors and try and associate which mutations occur along with the EGFR mutation, or arise as a consequence of the resistance, and might be contributing to this very ability, concludes Carbone.