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CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1390523
This article is part of the Research Topic Treatment Response and Resistance to Targeted Therapies for NSCLC View all 16 articles

Therapeutic strategies to overcome ALK-fusion and BRAF-mutation as acquired resistance mechanism in EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: two case reports

Provisionally accepted
Yuan Zeng Yuan Zeng *
  • Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world. EGFR tyrosine inhibitors are the preferred first-line treatment for patients with epidermal growth factor-cell receptor mutant (EGFR mutant) advanced NSCLC.Unfortunately, drug resistance inevitably occurs leading to disease progression.Activation of the ALK and BRAF bypass signaling pathways is a rare cause of acquired drug resistance for EGFR-TKIs.We report two NSCLC-patients with EGFRmutations, in exon 19, and exon 18, correspondingly, who were treated with EGFR-TKIs. The first case shows acquired BRAF-mutation, and the second case demonstrates acquired ALK-fusion.The overall survival of patients was significantly prolonged by drug-match therapies. As it is well-known that ALK-fusion and BRAF-mutations are described forms of acquired resistance.These two case reports contribute to the previous reports that ALK-fusion and BRAF-mutation are potential underlying mechanisms of EGFR-TKI resistance.

    Keywords: EGFR-TKI resistance mechanisms, acquired ALK-fusion, acquired BRAF-mutation, NSCLC, case report

    Received: 23 Feb 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zeng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yuan Zeng, Hubei Cancer Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

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