TRK Fusion Cancer: Patient Characteristics and Survival Analysis in the Real-World Setting

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Genomics
• Molecular Biology

Background:

• Neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusions are recognized oncogenic drivers across diverse cancer types.
• While NTRK gene fusions predict response to tropomyosin receptor kinase inhibitors, their prognostic significance in a pan-tumor context remains largely undetermined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognostic implications of NTRK gene fusions in a real-world cancer patient cohort.
• To evaluate the overall survival in patients with NTRK gene fusions compared to those with wild-type NTRK genes.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of a de-identified clinico-genomic database from January 2011 to July 2018.
• Patients were categorized into NTRK gene fusion and NTRK wild-type groups, with 1:4 matching based on demographic and clinical factors.
• Overall survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses.

Main Results:

• Median overall survival was 12.5 months for the NTRK gene fusion cohort (n=27) versus 16.5 months for the NTRK wild-type cohort (n=107).
• The hazard ratio for overall survival was 1.44 (95% CI 0.61-3.37, p=0.648), indicating no statistically significant difference.
• Co-occurrence of NTRK gene fusions with other actionable biomarkers (e.g., ALK, BRAF, EGFR) was less frequent than in the wild-type group.

Conclusions:

• The study did not find a statistically significant difference in overall survival between patients with and without NTRK gene fusions.
• NTRK gene fusions were associated with a lower frequency of co-occurring targetable biomarkers.
• Further research is warranted to fully elucidate the prognostic role of NTRK gene fusions in diverse cancers.