KIAA1217-RET, resulting from the rearrangement of chromosome 10, was generated by the fusion of KIAA1217 exon 11 and RET exon 11 from a non-small cell lung cancer patient.
Rearrangements of RET are drivers of oncogenesis, traceable in different cancer types as papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal or breast cancer.
We examined the RET fusion gene in 936 patients with surgically resected NSCLC using a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) plus quantitative real-time PCR strategy, with validation using immunohistochemical and fluorescent in situ hybridization assays.
After determining the MTD and RP2D, an expansion in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) consisting of 3 molecularly defined cohorts (EGFR mutation; KRAS mutation; ALK, RET, or ROS1 fusion) was initiated.
We prospectively addressed whether EGFR and KRAS mutations, EML4-ALK, ROS1 and RET rearrangements, or wild-type (WT), affects radiosurgery outcomes and overall survival (OS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with brain metastases (BM).
In tumor cell lines displaying molecular alterations in potential nintedanib targets, the inhibitor demonstrates direct antiproliferative effects: in the NSCLC cell line NCI-H1703 carrying a PDGFR<i>α</i> amplification (ampl.); the gastric cancer cell line KatoIII and the breast cancer cell line MFM223, both driven by a FGFR2 amplification; AN3CA (endometrial carcinoma) bearing a mutated FGFR2; the acute myeloid leukemia cell lines MOLM-13 and MV-4-11-B with FLT3 mutations; and the NSCLC adenocarcinoma LC-2/ad harboring a CCDC6-RET fusion.
ALK, ROS1 and RET rearrangements were screened by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in patients with completely resected non-adenocarcinoma NSCLC.
Since the discovery in 2012 of rearranged during transfection proto-oncogene gene (RET) rearrangements in NSCLC, at least 12 different fusion variants have been identified, with kinesin family member 5B gene (KIF5B)-RET being the most frequent and the best characterized.
The impressive clinical activity of small-molecule receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors for oncogene-addicted subgroups of non-small-cell lung cancer (for example, those driven by activating mutations in the gene encoding epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or rearrangements in the genes encoding the receptor tyrosine kinases anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), ROS proto-oncogene 1 (ROS1) and rearranged during transfection (RET)) has established an oncogene-centric molecular classification paradigm in this disease.
The low prevalence of RET rearrangements (0.7%) prevents firm conclusions regarding association of vandetanib treatment with efficacy in the RET rearrangement NSCLC subpopulation.
Recently, a novel fusion gene resulting from a linkage between the kinesin family member 5B gene (KIF5B; 10p11.22) and the rearranged during transfection gene (RET; 10q11.21) was identified in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
RET-positive expression is a relatively independent factor in NSCLC patients, which indicates that the RET gene may be a novel target site for personalized treatment of NSCLC.