The immune profile of EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer at disease onset and progression after tyrosine kinase inhibitors therapy

The immune-checkpoint regulation is emerging as a key factor in lung cancer progression and immune-checkpoint inhibitors represent a new standard of care in patients with advanced EGFR and ALK wild-type non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Among pretreated NSCLCs; anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment significantly improves overall survival in EGFR wild-type cohort but not in EGFR-mutant group, when compared with docetaxel [1]. However, it is still debated how the immune scenario may change in EGFR-mutated NSCLCs during the disease progression after acquired resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and which may be the role of immunotherapy in the clinical management of these patients [2]. Here we reported the molecular characterization and immune profile of four patients with EGFR-mutated NSCLCs who progress on TKI therapy. Both the treatment-naive and resistant lesions were evaluated for molecular alterations, PD-L1 expression, tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) and next-generation sequencing-based gene expression analysis of 395 immune response-related genes.