Metaanalysis of ROS1-positive lung cancer cases

ROS1 is a rare mutation in lung cancer with a frequency of 1-2% and patients with ROS1-fusion genes are eligible for treatment with Crizotinib. However, studies with a large number of ROS1-positive lung cancer cases to characterise the cohort do not exist but are necessary. Therefore, published ROS1-positive cases in the literature were analysed in a metaanalysis to reveal the patients characteristica of ROS1-postive lung cancer cases. 146 scientific articles concerning ROS1 in lung cancer were reviewed and the available data of 117 ROS1-positive lung cancer specimen with known fusionpartner was collected and statistically analysed. ROS1 in lung cancer occure with 11 different fusionpartners in 20 different variants. The mean age of the patients with ROS1 fusiongenes was 57 years, 63,6% were female, 88% asians 18,6% had a signet ring differentiation. In contrast to other mutations in lung cancer, ROS1 does occur in NSCLC cases with EGFR mutations (1,7%) and in cases with a squamous or small cell lung cancer histology compount (5,5%). Mutation testing of ROS1 in patients with EGFR mutations and a squamous or small cell histology compount could reveal the treatment option with Crizotinib for those patients.