Asbestos-related lung cancers are rarely associated with ALK, ROS1 and RET rearrangements

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos-related lung cancers are rarely associated with ALK, ROS1 and RET rearrangements, by M. Uguen, J.D. Dewitte, B. Loddé, et al (The European Respiratory Journal, 2018).

The study

• Authors: M. Uguen, J.D. Dewitte, B. Loddé, P. Marcorelles, A. Uguen
• Journal: The European Respiratory Journal
• Published: 2018;51(3)
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor in which the authors reported a single-centre retrospective study from Brest, France. They had earlier described 146 patients whose asbestos-related lung cancers were financially compensated at their occupational disease centre between 2003 and 2013. Tumour samples were available for 56 of them. All 56 were men, and five (9%) were nonsmokers. The tumours were 32 adenocarcinomas, 20 squamous cell carcinomas and four small cell carcinomas. The letter does not name asbestos fiber types or jobs. The authors tested the samples for rearrangements of the ALK, ROS1, RET and NTRK1 genes and for MET amplification. These are tumour changes that can matter for targeted drug treatment. Rearrangements were found in the adenocarcinomas of four (7%) patients: two ALK (one never-smoker, one 20-pack-year smoker), one ROS1 (a 10-pack-year smoker) and one RET (a 20-pack-year smoker). No NTRK1 rearrangement or MET amplification was found. The authors concluded that these changes are rare but can occur in asbestos-related lung cancers, in smokers and nonsmokers. They noted that including only compensated cases prevents estimating how often these changes occur.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Single-centre (monocentric) retrospective study of tumour samples, published as a letter to the editor (correspondence)
• Who was studied: 56 patients with tumour samples available, out of 146 patients with financially compensated asbestos-related lung cancers at the authors' occupational disease centre in Brest, France, between 2003 and 2013. All were men. Five (9%) were nonsmokers.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure as recognised by financial compensation for asbestos-related lung cancer. The letter does not give fiber types, jobs or doses. Tumours were tested for ALK and ROS1 rearrangements (immunohistochemistry and FISH), RET and NTRK1 rearrangements (FISH), and MET amplification (FISH).
• Main results:
  • Of the 56 tumours, 32 were adenocarcinomas, 20 squamous cell carcinomas and four small cell carcinomas. All patients were men, and nonsmokers were five (9%) patients.
  • Oncogenic chromosomal rearrangements were found in the lung adenocarcinomas of four (7%) of the 56 patients.
  • Two tumours were ALK-rearranged (positive on immunohistochemistry and FISH): one in a never-smoker and one in a 20-pack-year smoker.
  • One ROS1-rearranged tumour was found in a 10-pack-year smoker.
  • One RET-rearranged tumour was found in a 20-pack-year smoker, on FISH.
  • No NTRK1 rearrangement or MET amplification was found.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that chromosomal alterations relevant to targeted treatment are rare but can be found in patients with asbestos-related lung cancers, both smokers and nonsmokers, potentially opening access to targeted therapies for these patients.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Including only patients with financially compensated asbestos-related lung cancers is a bias that prevents any estimate of how frequent these rearrangements are among asbestos-related lung cancers.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer, ROS1.

Related studies

• NTRK and ALK rearrangements in malignant pleural mesothelioma, pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours and non-small cell lung cancer — J.L. Leal, G. Peters, et al. (2020)
• Urinary Metabolite Diagnostic and Prognostic Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers of Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers and Tobacco Smokers — B. Dalal, T. Tada, et al. (2024)
• FISH Analysis of Crizotinib Target Genes ROS1/ALK/MET in Malignant Mesothelioma — S. Salvi, S. Varesano, et al. (2017)
• Differential mutation profiles and similar intronic TP53 polymorphisms in asbestos-related lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma — P. Andujar, J.C. Pairon, et al. (2013)
• Asbestos-related lung cancers: A retrospective clinical and pathological study — M. Uguen, J.D. Dewitte, et al. (2017)
• Identification of ALK Rearrangements in Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma — Y.P. Hung, F. Dong, et al. (2018)

Browse more research in The European Respiratory Journal, or return to medical research.