Molecular features of NSCLC patients with liver metastasis.

Background: Metastasis is the primary cause of lung cancer-related death. Primary cancer cells invade through the lymphatic or blood vessels to distant sites. Recently, it was proposed that lymphatic metastasis was more a hallmark of tumor aggressiveness or metastatic potential than a gateway to metastases. Therefore, the underlying molecular mechanism of metastasis is not entirely clear.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the genetic mechanisms underlying liver metastases from lung cancer and to evaluate the efficacy of different therapies in these patients.

Design: We retrospectively analyzed the mutation spectrum of different biopsy samples including primary lung tumors, liver, lymph node metastasis, and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from 1090 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with liver metastasis between the years 2017 and 2022.

Methods: Demographic and disease characteristics were summarized using descriptive parameters. Time to treatment discontinuation was used to analyze the clinical outcome.

Results: More liquid biopsies were performed than tissue biopsies, especially in the treated advanced NSCLC patients. Liver metastasis before treatment was associated with poor response to immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapy. Liver and lymph node metastasis had higher levels of single nucleotide variants and copy number variants than primary lung tumors. In paired lung and liver, lymph nodes, and simultaneous ctDNA, we found actionable mutations were always shared, while metastasis samples had multiple private mutations. Serial ctDNA analysis identifies potential resistant mutations and describes the evolution of tumor cells.

Conclusion: Liver and lymph node metastasis in NSCLC showed shared actionable mutations. Of note, the discrepancy of private mutations in liver and lymph node metastases indicated that liver metastases are mainly seeded by the primary tumor rather than the earlier colonized lymph node metastases.