Clinical implications of routine testing for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in patients with nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
8113 Background: EGFR mutation (Mut) testing is recommended for all patients (pts) with advanced NSCLC to identify pts who may benefit from front-line EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy. In July 2010 the Cleveland Clinic initiated reflex EGFR testing of all new diagnoses of nonsquamous NSCLC, prior to which testing was done only by physician request. A retrospective study was designed to review how this change affected clinical practice in a large academic health center. Methods: All pts with NSCLC that had EGFR Mut testing performed at the Cleveland Clinic from 07/2009 to 02/2012 were included (n=287). Pt characteristics, tumor histology and stage, Mut status, treatments, and pt outcomes were collected from electronic medical records. Special attention was given to pts with EGFR Mut+ who received erlotinib (E). Data were analyzed using Fisher’s exact, chi-square and the Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Results: See Table. Conclusions: Automatic EGFR mutation testing, recommended in an ASCO provisional clinical opinion in April 2011, was feasible in a large academic center and significantly shortened the time between diagnosis and EGFR status becoming available to guide treatment decisions. Although not statistically significant due to the small sample size, there were positive trends towards increased first line usage of E in pts with EGFR Mut+, better performance status, lower rates of E discontinuation due to toxicity, and higher response rate to E in the automatic testing group. There was no difference in overall survival between the two groups. [Table: see text]