BRAF activated non-coding RNA (BANCR), a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is crucial for cell migration in melanoma cells and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells.
A retrospective series of 1,046 NSCLCs-comprising 739 adenocarcinomas (ADCs) and 307 squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs)-was investigated for BRAF mutations.
Aberrations in significant genes located on it, such as EGFR, cMET, BRAF combined with numerical abnormalities of the whole chromosome are cytogenetic events that lead to specific molecular signatures in patients with NSCLC.
Although >90% of BRAF mutations in melanoma involve codon 599 (57 of 60), 8 of 9 BRAF mutations reported to date in NSCLC are non-V599 (89%; P < 10(-7)), strongly suggesting that BRAF mutations in NSCLC are qualitatively different from those in melanoma; thus, there may be therapeutic differences between lung cancer and melanoma in response to RAF inhibitors.
Among the 323 patients with NSCLC (60.1% female; median age, 65 years [range, 33-93 years]), therapeutically targetable mutations were detected in EGFR, ALK, MET, BRCA1, ROS1, RET, ERBB2, or BRAF for 113 (35.0%) overall.
Both maintained T-cell responses in peripheral blood to oncogenic driver mutations - BRAF-N581I in the NSCLC and AKT1-E17K in the CRC - years after treatment initiation.
Cetuximab, an antibody directed against the epidermal growth factor receptor, is an effective clinical therapy for patients with colorectal, head and neck, and non-small cell lung cancer, particularly for those with KRAS and BRAF wild-type cancers.
Clinical trials evaluating B-Raf inhibitors in BRAF mutated NSCLC patients have shown promising results, and larger prospective studies are warranted to validate these findings.