Prevalence of EGFR Mutations in Vietnamese Patients with Resected Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: EARLY-EGFR Study.

Introduction: Comprehensive profiling of mutations in the EGFR gene is vital for selecting patients eligible for EGFR targeted therapies.

Methods: We investigated the prevalence of EGFR mutations and treatment patterns in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Vietnam as a part of EARLY-EGFR (Clinical Trial Identifier: NCT04742192), a global, real-world study. Consecutive patients with surgically resected stage IA-IIIB, non-squamous NSCLC were diagnosed from August 2021 to June 2022 and were prospectively enrolled from November 2021 to July 2022.

Results: A total 200 patients (age: median [range], 60.0 [30.0-80.0] years) were enrolled from 3 centers; 56.0% were males and 64.0% never smoked. The prevalence of EGFR mutations was 51.0% (102/200) including deletions in exon-19 (49.0%) and exon-21 L858R mutations (33.3%). Females (73.9%, 65/88), patients aged ≥60 years (52.5%, 53/101), nonsmokers (61.2%, 63/103) and those with stage I (55.8%, 67/120) had higher prevalence of EGFR mutations. Multivariate analysis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]) showed EGFR mutations to be significantly associated (p < 0.05) with female gender (aOR = 5.90), age ≥60 years (aOR = 1.05), and stage III disease (vs stage I) (aOR = 0.30).

Conclusion: These results underscore the need for EGFR testing early in management algorithm of NSCLC in Vietnam to identify patients eligible for targeted therapy in concordance with international guidelines.