The Investigation of EGFR mutation and ALK gene rearrangement rates in lung adenocarcinoma patients in Mardin

Objective: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous group of tumors comprising different histologic subtypes and genetic mutations. Important mutations are EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor), ALK (Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase) rearrangement and ROS 1 rearrangement. This study aimed to determine the mutation rates of lung adenocarcinoma patients admitted to Mardin State Hospital Oncology clinic and to review the literature on the term mutually exclusivity. Materials and Methods: The records of patients admitted to Mardin State Hospital Medical Oncology Clinic between 2014-2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The descriptive statistics for continuous variables mean/median; for categorical variables, frequency (n) and percentage (%) were shown. Results: There were 39 lung adenocarcinoma patients (30.2%) among 130 lung cancer patients. The median age of female patients was 49.31 (27-74), while the median age of male patients was 58.87 (43-78). There were 6 EGFR mutant (15.4%) patients and 2 (5.1%) patients with ALK rearrangement. There were no ROS-1 positive patients. Conclusion: This study indicates that EGFR mutation rates may be very low in Turkey compared to the literature and ALK rates may be close to the literature. To determine the actual mutation rates and factors affecting genetic alterations in Turkey, there are needed to further studies.