Purpose: We did this retrospective study to explore the association between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and clinical features in postoperative recurrent female non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Materials and methods: We reviewed clinical data on 86 female patients who had postoperative recurrent disease between December 1992 and July 2007. The start of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy was treated as a censoring event. Corresponding surgical specimens of primary tumors were used to test for EGFR mutations.
Results: Thirty patients presented with local recurrence and distant recurrence was identified in 56. Thirty-four of the 86 patients (40%) harbored EGFR mutations. Patients with distant recurrence were more likely to have EGFR mutations than patients with local recurrence (48% versus 23%; P = 0.024). On multivariate analysis, distant recurrence was associated with a high frequency of EGFR mutations (OR, 3.3; P = 0.028). Survival analysis showed poor survival of patients with mutated EGFR (HR, 2.3; P = 0.017) or with non-adenocarcinoma histology (HR, 3.3; P = 0.001).
Conclusion: The association between recurrence pattern and EGFR mutation status was suggested in recurrent female NSCLC patients. In addition, our data indicate unfavorable disease process of EGFR mutated tumors. Further studies need to be conducted to validate these findings.