Longitudinal Tracking of ALK-Rearranged NSCLC From Plasma Using Circulating Tumor RNA and Circulating Tumor DNA

Although the administration of tyrosine-kinase inhibitors in ALK-rearranged NSCLC has revolutionized precision medicine, the detection of gene rearrangements from liquid biopsies remains challenging. RNA-based detection has revealed promising sensitivity for rearrangement detection and thus we hypothesize that a liquid biopsy assay analyzing circulating tumor RNA (ctRNA) in addition to circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) will improve detection. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the detection of gene fusions at baseline will correlate with clinical outcomes.

We retrospectively analyzed 86 plasma samples from 33 patients enrolled in the BRIGHTSTAR clinical trial assessing local consolidative therapy (LCT) and brigatinib in patients with stage IV or recurrent NSCLC and confirmed ALK rearrangement (NCT03707938) using a targeted next-generation sequencing assay that analyzes ctDNA to detect gene rearrangements and mutations in 80 genes and ctRNA to detect gene arrangements in 36 genes.

ALK rearrangements were detected in 15 of 28 patients (54%) at baseline, of which eight were detected in both ctDNA and ctRNA. ALK rearrangements were detected in two patients pre-LCT, exclusively in ctRNA, but cleared completely post-LCT. The detection of ALK fusion at baseline was associated with significantly worse progression-free survival (p = 0.033). Plasma cell-free DNA concentrations for patients with detectable ALK rearrangements at baseline were significantly higher than for those without detectable gene fusions (12.3 ng/mL versus 20.2 ng/mL, p = 0.0046).

The inclusion of ctRNA in liquid biopsies increased detection of ALK rearrangements and detection at baseline was associated with significantly worse progression-free survival highlighting the added benefit of ctRNA.