Investigating MET Exon 14 Mutations in Patients With NSCLC

Mark M. Awad, MD, PhD, clinical director of the Thoracic Oncology Treatment Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the characterization of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have MET exon 14 (METex14) skipping alterations (SA) and potential acquired resistance mechanisms.

In this study, which was done in collaboration with Foundation Medicine, over 60,000 patients with NSCLC were investigated and 1387 (2.3), had METex14 mutations. Awad says this is an important and emerging subset of lung cancer to identify, especially now since there is an FDA-approved targeted therapy called capmatinib (Trabrecta) for patients with METex14 SA.

Since this is a relatively new target in the lung cancer setting, it is more important to identify the characteristics of these cancers to see what other mutations may be present within the genome as much as possible, according to Awad. The trial also looked to answer whether there are other factors that may regulate response or resistance to either immunotherapy or to targeted therapy.

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