Multiple mutations in the EGFR gene in lung cancer: a systematic review
Review Article

Multiple mutations in the EGFR gene in lung cancer: a systematic review

Juan Pablo Castañeda-González1#, Juan José Chaves1#, Rafael Parra-Medina1,2,3

1Department of Pathology, Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Hospital San José, Bogotá, Colombia; 2Research Institute, Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Bogotá, Colombia; 3Department of Pathology, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Bogotá, Colombia

Contributions: (I) Conception and design: R Parra-Medina; (II) Administrative support: R Parra-Medina; (III) Provision of study materials or patients: R Parra-Medina; (IV) Collection and assembly of data: JP Castañeda-González, JJ Chaves; (V) Data analysis and interpretation: All authors; (VI) Manuscript writing: All authors; (VII) Final approval of manuscript: All authors.

#These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Rafael Parra-Medina. Department of Pathology, Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia, Calle 1 N. 9-85, Bogota, Colombia. Email: rafa.parram@gmail.com.

Background: Lung cancer is a public health problem worldwide. Currently, identifying genetic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has brought significant changes in diagnosing and managing patients with lung cancer. The presence of multiple mutations, defined as the presence of more than one EGFR mutation, has been reported in a few studies. Therefore, we carried out this systematic review to describe the most common multiple mutations in the EGFR gene.

Methods: We conduct a systematic review of descriptive studies, cohorts, and clinical trials published in Scopus, PubMed, Scielo, and Virtual Health Library literature. The inclusion criteria for the systematic review were descriptive studies, cohorts, and clinical trials with the presence of multiple mutations in the EGFR gene. It was followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Results: In the systematic review, 41 articles were included. Four hundred and forty-six cases with multiple mutations in the EGFR gene were found (0.95% of the patients included in the studies). The most prevalent dual mutations observed were T790M + L858R and deletions in exon 19 + T790M. Triple mutations were found in 9 cases (2.017%). According to reports, the presence of T790M mutation in the multiple mutations has been associated with poor clinical outcomes.

Discussion: The presence of multiple mutations in the EGFR gene is rare. It is of great importance to consider the T790M mutation since it generates resistance to pharmacological management and has worse outcomes. The most important limitation was that clinical information data and follow-up could not be collected in a large percentage of patients. Therefore, future work should be focused on clinical characteristics, follow-up and repercussions in the treatment of patients with multiple mutations.

Keywords: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR); multiple mutations; lung cancer; systematic review


Submitted Mar 25, 2022. Accepted for publication Aug 08, 2022.

doi: 10.21037/tlcr-22-235


Introduction

Lung cancer is a public health problem worldwide. In 2021, it was estimated that around 235,760 new cases of lung neoplasms had been diagnosed, contributing to 131,880 deaths secondary to cancer. Overall, lung cancer causes more deaths than breast, prostate, colorectal, and brain cancers combined (1,2). According to recent data from GLOBOCAN, lung cancer (11.4%) is the second most diagnosed neoplasm after breast cancer in women (11.7%) and the leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 18.0% of the total cancer deaths (3). Among the lung cancer subtypes, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85% of cases (4,5).

In recent years, identifying genetic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has brought significant changes in diagnosing and managing patients with lung cancer (6). The EGFR gene is located on chromosome 7p11.2 and contains 28 exons. The protein it encodes has an extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic domain (7). The cytoplasmic domain (also called the tyrosine kinase domain) is responsible for the phosphorylation of its downstream targets and self-regulation. The impact of mutations in the EGFR gene falls on cell proliferation and differentiation regulation, hence its association with cancer (8,9).

The incidence of EGFR mutations differs significantly according to ethnicity, with incidences of 10–15% reported in European and North American populations, 26% in Latin America (10), and up to 62% in Asian people (11). In a recent study published by Suda et al. (12), in which 13,951 samples were obtained from patients with lung cancer, it was shown that the rate of smoking was higher in patients with the mutation in the EGFR gene (P=0.02). Deletion of exon 19 and the missense mutations in exon 21 (L858R) are the most common mutations of the EGFR gene (80–90%). They are considered common mutations sensitive to treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) (13). The use of EGFR TKIs has been first-line therapy in treating NSCLC with EGFR mutations (14). Patients with advanced NSCLC with TKIs-sensitive EGFR mutations may develop progressive disease after 12 months, mainly from secondary EGFR mutations leading to TKIs resistance (15). The main mutation after TKIs management is the substitution of the threonine residue at position 790 with methionine (T790M) within exon 20 of the EGFR gene, corresponding to approximately half of the cases of acquired resistance to TKIs (16,17).

The presence of multiple mutations, defined as the presence of more than one EGFR mutation, has not been much studied, and the clinical impact is uncertain. Therefore, we carried out this systematic review to describe the most common multiple mutations in the EGFR gene with clinical data collection. We present the following article according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting checklist (available at https://tlcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tlcr-22-235/rc).


Methods

Search strategy

We conduct a systematic review of descriptive studies, cohorts, and clinical trials published in Scopus, PubMed, Scielo, and Virtual Health Library literature. No limits were placed on the language or publication period in the search. The search was performed with the following terms: lung AND EGFR AND (“dual” or “multiple” AND “mutation”).

The PRISMA guidelines were followed for data extraction, analysis, and reporting (18). The search was carried out in December 2021. We consider papers available in the following languages: English and Spanish.

Study selection and data extraction

The inclusion criteria for the systematic review were descriptive studies, cohorts, and clinical trials with the presence of multiple mutations in the EGFR gene. Two reviewers (JJC and JPC) screened all the titles and abstracts from the publications and performed an eligibility assessment. Retrieved articles were rejected if the eligibility criteria were not met. A third reviewer (RPM) was consulted when eligibility criteria were unclear. Hand searches were performed from the papers that seemed to be relevant.

The extracted data from each article, when possible, were age, gender, smoking status, staging of the tumor, pathologic description of the tumor, kind of pathological sample, molecular method of diagnosis, history of TKIs use and resistance, and survival. All cases were analyzed individually and organized according to the exon with the lowest denomination present in the multiple mutations.

Data synthesis and analysis

Univariate analysis was applied to determine the distribution of clinical and pathological findings.


Results

Systematic review literature

We identified 533 original articles in the databases. Three hundred and thirty-seven duplicates were identified. One hundred and ninety-six articles, including clinical trials, analytical studies, and descriptive studies, were evaluated for eligibility. Finally, 41 articles including descriptive studies which consist of (6,9,19-39) and (40-51) (n=35, 85.36%), cohorts (52) (n=1, 2.43%), and clinical trials (53-57) (n=5, 12.19%) were included that contained data that met the eligibility criteria (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Flow chart of the systematic literature review.

Multiple mutations data

Four hundred and forty-six cases with multiple mutations in the EGFR gene were found out of 46,679 samples included in the systematic review (0.95% of the total) (Tables 1,2). Although not all the articles mentioned the histological type of cancer, according to the report’s information, it was possible to collect 125 cases of adenocarcinoma, 7 cases of adenosquamous carcinomas, 13 cases described as non-adenocarcinoma, and 1 case as bronchoalveolar carcinoma (previous terminology). The majority of samples were obtained after surgical (7 articles) or needle biopsy procedures (7 articles).

Table 1

Clinical and sociodemographic data of patients with multiple mutations in the EGFR gene

Author Country/region Year Number of total cases of lung cancer Number of dual/triple mutations Dual and triple mutations Age (years) Gender Smoking history Tumor staging Pathology Pathological sample Molecular techniques for the detection of EGFR gene mutations Previous use of TKI medication History of TKI resistance PFS (months) OS (months)
Huang SF (32) Taiwan 2004 101 9 del19 (exon 19) + V769M (exon 20) 62 Male No Ia Adenocarcinoma Surgical sample PCR No Unknown Unknown Unknown
L858R (exon 21) + L838V (exon 21) 59 Female No IIIa Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
E709A (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21) 76 Male Yes IV Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
E709G (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21) 50 Female Yes IIIa Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
L833V (exon 21) + H835L (exon 21) 76 Female No Ib Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
G719C (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) 75 Male No IIb Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
G719S (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) 71 Female Yes IV Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + L861Q (exon 21) 66 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Yes No Unknown 1.9
W731Stop (exon 19) + H773R (exon 20) 66 Male No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Yes Yes Unknown 1.5
Bean J (19) United States 2008 48 1 L858R (exon 21) + T854A (exon 21) 69 Female Yes Stage IIB Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma Unknown Rapid PCR-based detection Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
Wu CC (40) Taiwan 2008 4,737 10 G719A (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) 66 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Surgical or needle biopsy/aspiration procedure RT-PCR Yes No 1.25 2
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 45 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 21.75 20
R776G (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 87 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 0.25 1.0
R776H (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 52 Male Yes IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 17.5 32
R776H (exon 20) + L861Q (exon 21) 65 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 2.25 7
G779S (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 76 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 15.25 23
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 80 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 2.25 7
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 55 Female No IV Adenocarcinoma Yes No 2.25 30
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 66 Male Yes IV Adenocarcinoma No No Unknown 36
N771_H773dupNPH (exon 20) + H773_V774insG (exon 20) 78 Female No Ib Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown 17
Jia XL (21) China 2011 6,990 7 G719S (exon 18) + L747S (exon 19) 49 Male No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma Surgical sample PCR No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + D807N (exon 20) 54 Female No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + Q787Q (exon 20) 53 Male No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + K754A (exon 19) + Q787Q (exon 20) 45 Male No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Q787Q (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 63 Female No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Q787Q (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 64 Female No Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Q787Q (exon 21) + H850R (exon 21) 57 Male Yes Unknown Adenosquamous carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Johnson ML (53) United States 2011 21 12 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) (10 cases) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Unknown Mutation specific PCR-based methods Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (2 cases) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
Kim SH (54) Korea 2013 16 1 2317-2319 CAC dup (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 69 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Unknown RT-PCR No No 1.0 Unknown
Tsao AS (57) United States 2013 54 4 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown MiSeq system Yes Yes 3.8 5.5
del19 (exon 19) + C797S (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No No 0.9 1.0
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Yes 1.9 4.1
V802I (exon 20) + K852R (exon 21) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Yes 2.6 6.3
Author Country/region Year Number of total cases of lung cancer Number of dual/triple mutations Dual and triple mutations Age (years) Gender Smoking history Tumor staging Pathology Pathological sample Molecular techniques for the detection of EGFR gene mutations Previous use of TKI medication History of TKI resistance PFS (months) OS (months)
Landi L (25) Italy 2014 96 8 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown RGQ PCR kit No Unknown 1.5 16.9
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No Unknown 15.4 19.16
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 1.9 2.14
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 2.20 5.32
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 8 9.5
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 3.8 3.91
T790M (exon 20) + unspecified mutation (exon 21) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 5.1 10.35
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 1.1 2.5
Shan L (29) China 2015 92 2 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Surgical or needle biopsy procedure Unknown Yes Unknown 20.5 Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + exon 20 ins Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown 4.2 Unknown
Svaton M (33) Czech Republic 2015 1 1 G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) 63 Female Yes IV Adenocarcinoma Unknown RT-PCR No Yes Unknown Unknown
Lou Y (27) United States 2016 427 5 G719S (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20) 51 Female No IV, T4N2M1 Adenocarcinoma Unknown PCR amplifications No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 71 Male No IV, T2N3M1 Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 62 Female No IV, T2N0M1 Bronchoalveolar carcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 53 Female No IIIA, T4N0M0 Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 34 Female No IV, T4N3M1 Adenocarcinoma No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Ortiz-Cuaran S (28) Germany 2016 7 7 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 71 Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample MiSeq system No Yes Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L861Q (exon 21) 64 Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 54 Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 57 Male Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 60 Male Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 56 Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 51 Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma No Yes Unknown Unknown
Jiang L (22) China 2017 297 1 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown
Kadabur L (23) India 2017 6 4 Unspecified mutation (exon 21) + L858R (exon 21) 56 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample RT-PCR No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Unspecified mutation (exon 21) + L858R (exon 21) 50 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 40 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Needle aspiration cytology No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 54 Unknown Yes No Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Suryavanshi M (30) India 2017 76 1 T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 54 Male Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample RGQ PCR kit Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
van Veggel B (56) Netherlands 2018 8 6 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 62 Female Unknown IV Unknown Unknown TruSeq Amplicon-Cancer Panel (Illumina) Yes Yes 1.2 Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 70 Male Unknown IV Unknown Yes Yes 1.4 Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 79 Female Unknown IV Unknown Yes Unknown 1.3 Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 37 Female Unknown IV Unknown Yes No 1.4 Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 66 Female Unknown IV Unknown Yes Yes 1.4 Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) 72 Female Unknown IV Unknown Yes Yes 2.1 Unknown
Zaemes J (31) United States 2018 1 1 G719S (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) 82 Female No Unknown Adenocarcinoma Biopsy tissue sample TruSight tumor panel on the Illumina MiSeq No No Unknown Unknown
Gao X (52) China 2019 16,347 89 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) (22 cases) <60 (10 cases), >60 (12 cases) Female
(12 cases), male (10 cases)
No (17 cases), yes (4 cases) IA (13 cases), IB–IIIA
(6 cases)
Adenocarcinoma (20 cases), non-adenocarcinoma (1 case) Unknown The ARMS No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (63 cases) <60 (26 cases), >60 (37 cases) Female
(37 cases), male (26 cases)
No (51 cases), yes (12 cases) IA (33 cases), IB–IIIA
(27 cases)
Adenocarcinoma (49 cases), non-adenocarcinoma (12 cases) No Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L861Q (exon 21) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No Unknown Unknown Unknown
G719X (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (2 cases) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Hu Y (20) China 2019 1 1 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) 43 Male No IIIa, T1N2M0 Adenocarcinoma Surgical sample NGS Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
Zhang Z (50) China 2020 13 8 T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Male Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Female No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Male Yes Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Female No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) Unknown Male No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
E709K (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Female No Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + H805L (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Male No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) + D1012E (unknown exon) Unknown Male Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Lahmadi M (24) Algeria 2021 58 2 del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Male Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Surgical or needle biopsy procedure Mutation specific PCR-based methods Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21) Unknown Female Unknown Unknown Adenocarcinoma Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Bie Y (48) China 2021 1 1 L643V (exon 16) + del19 (exon 19) 60 Female No I, pT1N0M0 Adenocarcinoma Surgical sample NGS No Yes Unknown Unknown

EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; RT-PCR, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction; RGQ, Rotor-Gene Q; ARMS, Amplification Refractory Mutation System; TKI, tyrosine kinase inhibitor; NGS, next generation sequencing; PFS, progression-free survival; OS, overall survival.

Table 2

Other multiple mutations

Author Country/region Year Number of total cases of lung cancer Number of dual/triple mutations Dual and triple mutations
Kosaka T (45) Japan 2004 277 4 G719X (exon 18) + E709H (exon 18)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
R776C (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
Shigematsu H (46) Japan, Taiwan, United States and Australia 2005 617 3 G719S (exon 18)+ S768I (exon 20)
I715S (unknown exon) + S720F (unknown exon) + L861Q (exon 21)
G719C (exon 18) + E709V (exon 18) + L718L (unknown exon)
Yokoyama T (41) Japan 2006 264 7 G719S (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
G719C (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
S768I (exon 20) + V769L (exon 20)
S768I (exon 20)+ V774M (exon 20)
E709K (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
E709G (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
E709A (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
Janjigian YY (55) Netherlands and United States 2014 201 73 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) (44 cases)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (24 cases)
G719S (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20)
G719A (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20)
G719C (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20)
S768I (exon 20) + T790M (exon 20)
T790M (exon 20) + L861Q (exon 21)
Li B (26) China 2015 100 3 Unspecified mutation (exon 19) + unspecified mutation (exon 21) (3 cases)
Dolesova L (9) Slovakia 2015 450 1 S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
Udupa KS (42) India 2015 85 2 G719X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
Ardakani NM (35) Australia 2016 493 10 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20)
E709K (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
E709G (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
G719A (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
G719A (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
R776C (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
E709G (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
Labbé C (38) Canada 2017 105 5 Unspecified mutation (exon 20) + unspecified mutation (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 20) + unspecified mutation (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 19) + unspecified mutation (exon 20)
Unspecified mutation (exon 18) + unspecified mutation (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 18) + unspecified mutation (exon 21)
Choi YW (37) Korea 2018 60 4 Unspecified mutation (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 18) + del19 (exon 19)
Unspecified mutation (exon 18) + unspecified mutation (exon 20)
Wei Y (34) China 2018 41 4 S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20)
Rana V (44) India 2018 152 1 del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
Kate S (51) India 2019 1,260 44 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) (17 cases)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (15 cases)
G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) (3 cases)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (2 cases)
G719X (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20)
G779S (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
del19 (exon 19) + exon 20 ins
L858R (exon 21) + L861Q (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + S768I (exon 20)
T790M (exon 20) + L861I (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
Wang X (6) United States 2019 307 1 T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
Chen K (36) China 2020 600 5 G719X (exon 18) + L861Q (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
Nakra T (39) India 2020 3,436 19 del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20)
del19 (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
D761Y (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + L861Q (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + Unspecified mutation (exon 20)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
G719X (exon 18) + unspecified mutation (exon 19)
G719X (exon 18) + T790M (exon 20)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21)
L858R (exon 21) + G810V (unspecified exon)
E734K (exon 19) + L858R (exon 21)
Unspecified mutation (exon 19) + unspecified mutation (exon 20)
del19 (exon 19) + del19 (exon 19)
G719X (exon 18) + E734K (exon 19)
G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20)
L858R (exon 21) + A871G (unspecified exon)
Tang Y (43) China 2020 1,293 51 T790M (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (31 patients)
del19 (exon 19) + T790M (exon 20) (20 patients)
Brindel A (49) France 2020 7,539 27 G719X (exon 18) + S768I (exon 20) (9 cases)
G719X (exon 18) + E709X (exon 18) (7 cases)
E709X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21) (4 cases)
S768I (exon 20) + L858R (exon 21) (3 cases)
G719X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21) (2 cases)
G719X (exon 18) + L861Q (exon 21) (2 cases)
Cruz Castellanos P (47) Spain 2021 1 1 G719X (exon 18) + L858R (exon 21)

From the data of the patients included with follow-up, it was possible to obtain that the average progression-free survival (PFS) was 8 months (n=29 patients), and the overall survival (OS) was 19.3 months (n=24 patients).

The molecular techniques for the detection of EGFR gene mutations were: the Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS) (1 article, 89 patients), methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (13 articles, 61 patients), MiSeq system (3 articles, 12 patients), TruSeq Amplicon-Cancer Panel (1 article, 6 patients), and next generation sequencing (NGS) (2 articles, 2 patients).

The exon most involved in multiple mutations was exon 20 (n=382, 85.65% of the total), followed by exon 21 (n=243, 54.48%) and exon 19 (n=172, 38.56%). The most prevalent dual mutations observed were T790M (de novo and acquired)/L858R (n=158, 35.42%) and del19/T790M (de novo and acquired) (n=140, 31.39%). Only one case was reported in exon 16 (detected by NGS) (48). Other information on dual mutations is present in Table 3.

Table 3

Most frequent dual mutations according to exon location

First mutation Second mutation N (cases)
Exon 16
   L643V (exon 16) del19 (exon 19) 1
Exon 18
   G719X (exon 18) S768I (exon 20) 15
E709X (exon 18) 7
L858R (exon 21) 6
L861Q (exon 21) 4
T790M (exon 20) 3
E709H (exon 18) 1
E734K (exon 19) 1
Unspecified mutation (exon 19) 1
Unspecified mutation (exon 20) 1
   G719S (exon 18) S768I (exon 20) 4
T790M (exon 20) 2
L747S (exon 19) 1
   G719A (exon 18) S768I (exon 20) 3
T790M (exon 20) 1
   G709G (exon 18) L858R (exon 21) 4
   E709X (exon 18) L858R (exon 21) 4
   Unspecified mutation (exon 18) Unspecified mutation (exon 21) 2
del19 (exon 19) 1
L858R (exon 21) 1
Unspecified mutation (exon 20) 1
   E709K (exon 18) L858R (exon 21) 3
   G719C (exon 18) S768I (exon 20) 2
T790M (exon 20) 1
   E709A (exon 18) L858R (exon 21) 2
   Total number 71
Exon 19
   del19 (exon 19) T790M (exon 20) 140
L858R (exon 21) 6
Exon 20 ins 2
D807N (exon 20) 1
Q787Q (exon 20) 1
C797S (exon 20) 1
L861Q (exon 21) 1
del19 (exon 19) 1
V769M (exon 20) 1
   Unspecified mutation (exon 19) Unspecified mutation (exon 21) 4
Unspecified mutation (exon 20) 2
   W731Stop (exon 19) H773R (exon 20) 1
   D761Y (exon 19) L858R (exon 21) 1
   E734K (exon 19) L858R (exon 21) 1
   Total number 154
Exon 20
   T790M (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 158
L861Q (exon 21) 3
S768I (exon 20) 2
L861I (exon 21) 1
Unspecified mutation (exon 21) 1
   S768I (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 12
V769L (exon 20) 1
V774M (exon 20) 1
   Q787Q (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 2
H850R (exon 21) 1
   R776C (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 2
   R776G (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 1
   R776H (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 1
L861Q (exon 21) 1
   G779S (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 2
   Unspecified mutation (exon 20) Unspecified mutation (exon 21) 2
   N771_H773dupNPH (exon 20) H773_V774insG (exon 20) 1
   2317-2319 CAC dup (exon 20) L858R (exon 21) 1
   V802I (exon 20) K852R (exon 21) 1
   Total number 194
Exon 21
   L858R (exon 21) L838V (exon 21) 1
T854A (exon 21) 1
Unspecified mutation (exon 21) 2
L861Q (exon 21) 1
G810V (unspecified exon) 1
A871G (unspecified exon) 1
   L833V (exon 21) H835L (exon 21) 1
   Total number 8

In 181 cases (Table 1), we could obtain more clinical information in patients with multiple mutations in the EGFR gene. The average age was 61.2 years, being more frequent in women (n=91/149, 61.07%) and people without a history of smoking (n=105/133, 78.9%). In 175 cases (not including triple mutations), we could determine what type of multiple mutations were. One hundred cases were from patients in the group with any EGFR gene mutation (except deletion in exon 19, L858R, and de novo T790M) plus a de novo mutation T790M in the EGFR gene, 60 cases from the group with the presence of a deletion in exon 19 or L858R, and any EGFR gene mutation (except deletion in exon 19, L858R, and de novo T790M), 12 cases from the group of a combination of any EGFR gene mutation (except deletion in exon 19, L858R, and de novo T790M) and two cases of combination of deletion in exon 19 and L858R mutation.

In 140 of the 175 patients, the T790M mutation of exon 20 was present, of which 100 cases were de novo, and 40 patients were acquired after TKI treatment. In the group of de novo T790M mutations, it can be established from the cases with clinical information that the mean age was 55.18 years, none was previously managed with TKIs, and the PFS and OS were 8.45 months (1 article, 2 patients) and 24.02 months (2 articles, 3 patients), respectively. However, survival data is limited to a small number of cases. In the case of patients with T790M acquired mutation, the average age was 61.69 years; 90% of the subjects had previous management with TKIs, where the majority were first-generation TKIs. In this group of patients, more information on patients was available, and the PFS was 3.62 months (5 articles, 17 patients) and OS 8.03 months (3 articles, 10 patients).

Triple mutations were found in 9 cases (2.017%). In 5 of them, the dual T790M/L858R mutations were associated with a third variable mutation. Interestingly, in two instances, triple mutations were composed of the most frequent mutations found in our study: del19/T790M/L858R. The cases are described in greater detail in Table 4.

Table 4

Triple mutations

Triple mutations N
del19 (exon 19), T790M (exon 20), L858R (exon 21) 3
del19 (exon 19), K754A (exon 19), Q787Q (exon 20) 1
T790M (exon 20), H805L (exon 20), L858R (exon 21) 1
T790M (exon 20), L858R (exon 21), D1012E (unknown exon) 1
I715S (unknown exon), S720F (unknown exon), L861Q (exon 21) 1
G719C (exon 18), E709V (exon 18), L718L (unknown exon) 1
G719X (exon 18), S768I (exon 20), L858R (exon 21) 1
Total number 9

Discussion

Multiple mutations in the EGFR gene are a rare event. We found 446 of 46,679 patients with multiple mutations in the present review. These mutations were reported mainly in exons 18 to 21. Only one case reported mutation in exon 16 (48). We included patients from different ethnicity, predominantly Asian and European. The most common multiple mutation was the L858R mutation in exon 21 with the T790M in exon 20 (de novo and acquired). In contrast to Kate et al. (51), the most common multiple mutations were a deletion in exon 19 with the T790M mutation in exon 20. In our study, there were 158 patients with the L858R and T790M mutations, from which detailed information could be obtained in some of them. Gao et al. (52) reported 63 cases, of which 37 (58.7%) patients were older than 60 years, 37 cases were women (58.7%), most of these patients had no history of smoking (80.9%), and in 49 cases (77.7%) were adenocarcinomas.

The most common single mutation associated with dual mutations was the mutation in exon 20 (T790M) (de novo and acquired), with 305 cases in total. In the patients with the T790M mutation that we were able to collect data from (138 patients), we found that patients with the acquired T790M mutation are more frequent with the subgroup of patients with a deletion in exon 19. In contrast, de novo mutations are more abundant in patients with the L858R mutation. Liang et al. (58) analyzed 25 studies including 1,770 patients; they observed that T790M was more frequent in exon 19 deletion than in L858R among patients with acquired resistance to TKIs.

According to previous data, around 73% of lung cancers with the T790M mutation have a second mutation in the EGFR gene (59). In our study, the T790M mutation (including de novo and acquired cases) was present in 69.05% (n=310/446) of all multiple mutations. This mutation is usually detected in NSCLC patients previously exposed to TKIs, where approximately half of the cases developed resistance to this type of drug (39). The study by Singh et al. (60). showed that the coexistence of the de novo EGFR T790M mutation with any other EGFR mutation had primary resistance to first- and second-generation EGFR TKIs. A hypothesis suggests that the T790M mutation by itself could be a weak oncogene, requiring a secondary mutation to enhance cancer development (59). However, clinical follow-up data are limited to a few patients. We found that the PFS and OS from patients with acquired T790M mutation plus other mutations (PFS: 3.6 months, OS: 8.2 months) are lower than patients with de novo T790M mutation plus other mutations (PFS: 8.4 months, OS: 24 months). In the study by Lin et al. (61), it was shown that patients with acquired multiple mutations with the presence of the T790M mutation have a lower median PFS and OS compared to patients without this mutation (median PFS 2.9 vs. 9.7 months; median OS 17.8 vs. 31 months). Liang et al. (58) suggested that patients with T790M mutation and deletion in exon 19 may be more likely to benefit from osimertinib than those with L858R; hence first-generation TKIs may be less recommended in patients with exon 19 deletion. Recently Moriya et al. (62) conducted a study showing that management with a third-generation TKI such as osimertinib achieved a longer PFS than first- and second-generation TKIs. The meta-analysis presented by Liu et al. (63) showed that the acquired T790M mutation was not predictive of a superior OS. However, unlike the study by Lin et al. (61) and the present study, it was demonstrated that the acquired T790M mutation had a higher PFS and OS compared to patients with the de novo T790M mutation. It should be noted that these data are not explicitly extracted from cases with multiple EGFR mutations. Also, the clinical behavior of patients with uncommon EGFR mutations against TKIs is variable; for example, the S768I mutation is resistant to first-generation TKIs (gefitinib/erlotinib), while insertions in the exon 20 confer resistance to first and second-generation TKIs (afatinib) (64).

In vitro studies have observed that dual mutations reduce the response to TKIs compared with one mutation (65,66). A recent systematic review by Attili et al. (67) described that the objective response rate (ORR) and the PFS are different in patients with dual common and uncommon mutations treated with first-generation or second-generation TKIs. They defined common mutation as the deletion in exon 19 or L858R mutation; and uncommon mutation as any mutation but L858R, exon 19 deletions, or de novo T790M mutation. They found that patients with uncommon dual mutations had less ORR and PFS than common dual mutations. They concluded that in patients with common dual mutations and dual mutations of common and uncommon, the similar overall response and survival outcomes with any TKIs are similar to a single common EGFR mutation. At the same time, the patients with uncommon mutations have higher benefits with second and third-generation TKIs.

The nine cases with triple mutations in the world literature are interesting. It was possible only to obtain information from four patients from our analysis. It is striking to see that a large percentage of the mutations involved are the most common mutations, including exon 19 deletions, L858R and T790M; which raises the hypothesis that with the development of last generation TKIs, the tumor biologically must give “third hits” to maintain its oncogenic activity. Especially, third-generation TKIs have shown better efficacy and safety profiles than other inhibitors. However, their resistance mechanism is more heterogeneous than that of other inhibitors, and in many cases, the resistance mechanism has not yet been identified (68).

This article has limitations. The most important was that clinical information data could not be collected in a large percentage of patients. In addition, where data were available, the type of information was not uniform, which prevented the extraction of accurate epidemiological data, especially regarding patient follow-up. Also, in general, when studying multiple EGFR gene mutations in patients with lung neoplasms, there is a risk that a mutation may be missed because molecular screening techniques are used in many medical centers and not specific genotyping methods (69). In our study, we mainly analyzed patients with deletions in exon 19; however, according to a recent study by Chen et al. (70), there are a large number of variants in this type of mutation (different starting locations and with or without amino acid insertion/substitution) that may have clinical repercussions, for which we consider it essential to take this into account for future studies.


Conclusions

According to our analysis, multiple mutations in the EGFR gene are found in less than 1% of the samples studied in patients with lung neoplasms. The most frequent dual mutations were T790M with L858R and exon 19 deletions with T790M. The most common single mutation associated with dual mutations was the mutation in exon 20 (T790M) (de novo and acquired). Acquired T790M mutations are more frequent in the subgroup of patients with a deletion in exon 19, whereas de novo mutations are more abundant in patients with the L858R mutation. The presence of T790M mutation showed poor outcomes in the follow-up of patients.


Acknowledgments

Funding: This research was supported by Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia, Bogota, Colombia.


Footnote

Reporting Checklist: The authors have completed the PRISMA reporting checklist. Available at https://tlcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tlcr-22-235/rc

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Cite this article as: Castañeda-González JP, Chaves JJ, Parra-Medina R. Multiple mutations in the EGFR gene in lung cancer: a systematic review. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2022;11(10):2148-2163. doi: 10.21037/tlcr-22-235

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