Understanding ALK+ NSCLC: Causes, Prevalence, and Prognosis | Takeda Oncology
ALK+ Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (mNSCLC)
Overview
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) NSCLC is a unique type of NSCLC caused by a change in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, and accounts for about 3% to 5% of people with NSCLC. This means there will be roughly 40,000 new cases of ALK+ NSCLC worldwide each year. 1-3
ALK+ NSCLC patients tend to have a more advanced stage of the disease upon diagnosis and may experience the spread of the disease to their brain. In fact, as many as 75% of people with ALK+ NSCLC will ultimately develop brain metastases during the course of their disease. 4-5
References
1 Gainor JF, Varghese AM, Ou SH, et al. ALK rearrangements are mutually exclusive with mutations in EGFR or KRAS: an analysis of 1,683 patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2013;19(15):4273-4281. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-0318. 2 Koivunen JP, Mermel C, Zejnullahu K, et al. EML4-ALK fusion gene and efficacy of an ALK kinase inhibitor in lung cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14(13):4275-4283. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-08-0168. 3 Wong DW, Leung EL, So KK, et al. The EML4-ALK fusion gene is involved in various histologic types of lung cancers from nonsmokers with wild-type EGFR and KRAS. Cancer. 2009;115(8):1723-1733. doi:10.1002/cncr.24181. 4 Johung KL, Yeh N, Desai NB, et al. Extended survival and prognostic factors for patients with ALK-rearranged non–small-cell lung cancer and brain metastasis. J Clin Oncol. 2016;34(2):123-129. doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.62.0138 5 Rangachari D, Yamaguchi N, VanderLaan PA, et al. Brain metastases in patients with EGFR-mutated or ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancers. Lung Cancer. 2015;88(1):108-111. doi:10.1016/j.lungcan.2015.01.020.
