The coexistence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often leads to a worse prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Meanwhile, approaches targeting specific genetic alterations have been shown to significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment outcomes of patients with NSCLC. Herein, we sought to evaluate the impact of COPD on the clinical manifestations and gene mutation profiles of NSCLC patients with both circulating tumor (ctDNA) and tumor DNA (tDNA).
The influence of COPD on clinical features was observed in 285 NSCLC cohorts suffering from NSCLC alone, NSCLC coexisting with COPD, or NSCLC coexisting with prodromal changes in COPD (with emphysema, bullae, or chronic bronchitis). The gene mutation profiles of specific 168 NSCLC-related genes were further analyzed in the NSCLC sub-cohorts with formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumor DNA (FFPE tDNA) samples and plasma circulating tumor DNA (PLA ctDNA) samples. Moreover, mutation concordance was assessed in tDNA and paired ctDNA of 110 NSCLC patients.
Relative to patients with NSCLC alone, patients with NSCLC coexisting with COPD and prodromal changes presented with worse lung functions, more clinical symptoms, signs and comorbidities, and inconsistent gene mutation profiles. In addition, patients in the latter two groups exhibited a higher average frequency of gene mutation. Lastly, mutation concordance between tDNA and ctDNA samples was significantly reduced in NSCLC patients coexisting with COPD.
Collectively, our findings revealed that coexistence of COPD leads to worse clinical manifestations and altered gene mutation profiles in patients with NSCLC. Additionally, for NSCLC patients with COPD, the use of ctDNA instead of tDNA may not be the most efficient approach to identifying gene mutations.