Abstract
e18002
Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. In Brazil, cancer is the second most common cause of death and there were an estimated 27,330 new cases of lung cancer in 2014. Targeted therapies have changed disease prognosis and current clinical guidelines advocate for EGFR/ALK molecular testing for all patients with advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma. Access to this testing is often limited in the developing world. In the case of Brazil, there is limited data regarding the frequency of testing and the changes in patterns of testing overtime. Methods: De-identified data was obtained from a commercial database that surveys approximately 2,000 cancer physicians in Brazil regarding practice patterns. On average 300 physicians responded to the survey, which is conducted every 6 months, and provided information on about 18,000 patients. Subsequently, we identified patients with lung cancer and calculated the frequency of testing for EGFR mutations and ALK rearrangement from 2011 to 2016. Results: 11,684 patients with lung adenocarcinoma were analyzed from 2011 to 2016. The frequency of testing for EGFR mutations increased significantly: 12.8% (287/2,228) in 2011, 34.4% (738/2,142) in 2012, 39.2% in 2013 (822/2,092), 43.9% in 2014 (866/1,972), 53.3% (1165/2,184) in 2015, and 58% (626/1,066) for the first semester of 2016. Testing for ALK rearrangement also increased noticeably over the same period: 0% in 2011 (0/2,228) and 2012 (0/2,142), 0.9% (19/2,092) in 2013, 2.99% (59/1,972) in 2014, 5.5% (121/2,184) in 2015, and 4.8% (52/1,066) for the first semester of 2016. Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the largest data analysis regarding changing practice patterns of molecular testing for lung adenocarcinoma over time in Brazil and Latin America. The frequency of testing for EGFR mutations and ALK rearrangement has increased over the last 5 years but is still below the current guidelines recommending that all patients with advanced disease be tested. Further understanding of the barriers to testing, will hopefully lead to national strategies for universal implementation of molecular testing.
