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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1530339
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Personalized Cancer Care: Novel Genetic and Statistical Approaches View all 4 articles
Prognostic Significance of ALK High Expsession in SCLC: A Nine-Year Cohort Analysis
Provisionally accepted
Xu Jinhe 1,2
Wenting Zhang 1,2
Feilai Xie 2 Chenxi Wang 1,2 Feng Cheng 1,2 Ruiying Rao 2,3 Ying Chen 2 Lei Zhang 2 Wen Wen 2 Zhongquan Zhao 2 Jialing Yuan 2 Yuqin Zheng 2
Zongyang Yu 1,2,3*- 1 Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
- 2 900 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Team of the Chinese PLA, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
- 3 Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
Purpose: To investigate the prognostic value of abnormal expression of ALK protein in SCLC patients based on 9-year data from our center.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to assess the clinical outcomes of ALK positive SCLC patients diagnosed in our hospital over the past 9 years. Used public databases to analyze the expression of ALK in pan-cancer and its prognostic value, analysed the correlation between ALK and SCLC prognosis-related genes.Results: A total of 685 patients diagnosed with SCLC underwent ALK testing, and 59 patients were identified as abnormal expression of ALK protein with 10 cases strong expression, 14 cases moderate expression, 35 cases weak expression. The median age of the ALK positive cohort was 64 years (range: 58-70 years), 91.5% (54/59) were male, 61.0% (36/59) were smokers, and the median overall survival (mOS) was 7.0 months (95%CI: 4.5-9.5 months). Within this cohort, the mOS for the ALK (+) subgroup was 4.0 months (95%CI: 2.9-5.1 months), ALK (++) subgroup was 10.0 months (95%CI: 4.9-15.1 months), and ALK (+++) subgroup was 12.0 months (95%CI: 7.4-16.6 months). Kaplan-Meier revealed that the mOS of the ALKLow group was significantly worse than ALKHigh group (mOS: 4.0 months (95%CI: 2.9-5.1 months) versus 11.0 months (95%CI: 8.3-13.7 months), p=0.009). Following covariate adjustment using a COX regression model, it was indicated that the level of abnormal expression of ALK protein was an independent prognostic factor for patients with SCLC (HR: 0.486, 95%CI: 0.271-0.871, p=0.015).Conclusion: The prognosis for SCLC patients with strong abnormal expression of ALK protein was significantly better compared to those with weak expression.
Keywords: Small Cell Lung Cancer, ALK, Immunohistochemistry, 5D3F, prognosis
Received: 18 Nov 2024; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jinhe, Zhang, Xie, Wang, Cheng, Rao, Chen, Zhang, Wen, Zhao, Yuan, Zheng and Yu. 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:
Zongyang Yu, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, 350108, Fujian Province, China
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