Evolution of lung adenocarcinoma from preneoplasia to invasive adenocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE: Mutations in driver genes contribute to the development and progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, in the dynamic evolutionary process from adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) to minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) and eventually to invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC), the role of driver genes is currently unclear. This study aimed to analyse the role of driver gene status in the progression of LUAD from preneoplasia to IAC. METHODS: Patients with LUAD who underwent surgery in our centre from March 2015 to December 2019 were retrospectively analysed, and LUAD patients with tumour sizes ≤3.0 cm and pN0 were included in the final analysis. The mutation status of common driver genes, including EGFR, ALK and ROS1, was detected. According to the pathological characteristics, the patients were divided into three stages: AIS, MIA and IAC. We analysed the distribution of driver gene mutation frequencies across three stages of LUAD. In addition, we performed univariate and multivariate analyses of IAC patients to screen for relevant variables (driver genes and clinicopathological features) affecting their prognosis. RESULTS: Ultimately, 759 patients with LUAD were enrolled, including 135, 130, and 494 cases of AIS, MIA, and IAC, respectively. EGFR mutations were identified in 359 (61.8%) patients, and with the transition from AIS to MIA, the frequency of EGFR mutations increased from 33.3% to 50.8%, p = 0.004, whereas the frequency of EGFR mutations was comparable for MIA and IAC (50.8% vs. 50.2%, p = 0.922). Moreover, ALK and ROS1 gene fusions were identified in 17 cases (2.2%) and 2 cases (3.0‰) respectively. For AIS, neither ALK gene nor ROS1 gene fusions were observed. When the tumour progressed to MIA, the ALK fusion frequency was 2.3% (3/130), which was basically consistent with the ALK fusion frequency of 2.8% in IAC, p = 0.143. For IAC, fusions of ROS1 fell into this category. In addition, we found that 40 patients (5.3%) developed metastasis/recurrence, and 14 patients (1.8%) died of cancer‐specific related diseases. Notably, for AIS, there were no recurrences and no deaths, and for MIA, only 1 patient died with LUAD. Finally, survival analysis was performed in patients with stage IA invasive adenocarcinoma, and EGFR‐mutant patients showed better DFS than EGFR‐wild‐type patients (p = 0.036). Conversely, patients with ALK fusions showed worse DFS than those with ALK wild‐type (p = 0.004), and the same results were found in OS analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The accumulation of EGFR driver gene mutation frequencies mediates the progression of LUAD from AIS to MIA. When the tumour progresses to stage IA invasive adenocarcinoma, multivariate analysis based on driver gene status can be used as a pivotal prognostic factor.