Lung Cancer Survival, Recurrence After Surgery Informed by Gene Expression Patterns

Members of the Worldwide Innovative Network, the Curie Institute, and other centers in France and beyond explore ties between tumor gene expression and disease-free survival after surgery in 120 individuals who received "curative-intent surgery" for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As they report in JCO Precision Oncology, the researchers did array-based gene expression profiling on tumor and matched normal bronchial tissue samples from 120 NSCLC patients post-tumor resection. Along with immune response clues gleaned from the transcriptome data, the team turned to a so-called "digital display precision predictor" (DDPP) algorithm and corresponding DDPP score to search for expression shifts between an individual's tumor and normal lung tissues. The authors report that a low DDPP score and/or immunotolerant normal tissue showed significant ties to diminished disease-free survival times in NSCLC, while adjuvant chemotherapy seemed to stretch out disease-free survival in early-stage patients with a low DDPP score. Together, multivariate analyses suggest that tumor stage, the expression-based DDPP score, and lung tissue immune competence patterns may serve as "independent prognostic factors," they say, adding that the findings "open new avenues for prospective prognostic assessment and treatment assignment on the basis of transcriptome profiling of tumor and normal lung tissue in patients with NSCLC."