Étude du marqueur moléculaire EGFR dans le cancer broncho-pulmonaire.

Abstract

Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancerrelated death in men in Algeria. We carried out this study to assess clinicopathological aspects and risk factors of lung cancer in Eastern Algeria and to investigate EGFR mutation status in a cohort of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A retrospective study was conducted on 169 cases of lung cancer at the Benbadis university hospital, between Jun 2015 and December 2020. Clinical and pathological parameters were investigated based on the data found in the patients’ medical records. EGFR mutations and protein expression were examined in 58 NSCLC FFPE samples using capillary sequencing and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Patients with lung cancer showed a male predominance with a sex-ratio of 7.4, with a median age of 61 years. The smoking was estimated as 78.2% in men, while all women were non-smokers. Histologically, adenocarcinoma was the most common histological type (56.2%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (23%), while small cell carcinoma represented 5.4%. Majority of our patient (over 77%) have advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. The EGFR mutations were found in 39.6% of NSCLC patients, with the predominance of L585R point mutation. They were associated with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma and early stages of the disease, while had no relationship with age, gender, or smoking status. In conclusion, our study revealed that most patients with lung cancer were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and at an advanced stage, with smoking as the most important risk factor in men. Our NSCLC patients exhibited a high rate of EGFR mutations. Thus, the primary prevention, based mainly on tobacco control, and the access to anti-EGFR based treatments, may be the best strategies to reduce lung cancer morbidity and mortality.