EGFR Mutations and PD-L1 Expression in Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Real-World Data From a Single Center in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Targeted and immunotherapies are currently moving toward early-stage settings for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Predictive biomarkers data are scarce in this scenario. We aimed to describe the frequency of EGFR mutations and PD-L1 expression levels in early-stage non-squamous patients with NSCLC from a large, single Brazilian oncology center. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients with NSCLC diagnosed at an early-stage (IB to IIIA-AJCC seventh edition) at Barretos Cancer Hospital (n = 302). EGFR mutational status was assessed in FFPE tumor tissues using distinct methodologies (NGS, Cobas, or Sanger sequencing). PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (clone 22C3) and reported as Tumor Proportion Score (TPS), categorized as <1%, 1-49%, and ≥50%. We evaluated the association between EGFR mutational status and PD-L1 expression with sociodemographic and clinicopathological parameters by Fisher's test, qui-square test, and logistic regression. Survival analysis was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model. RESULTS: EGFR mutations were detected in 17.3% (n = 48) of cases and were associated with female sex, never smokers, and longer overall and event-free survival. PD-L1 positivity was observed in 36.7% (n = 69) of cases [TPS 1-49% n = 44(23.4%); TPS ≥50% n = 25(13.3%)]. PD-L1 positivity was associated with smoking, weight loss, and higher disease stages (IIB/IIIA). CONCLUSION: The frequencies of EGFR mutations and PD-L1 positivity were described for early-stage non-squamous patients with NSCLC. These results will be essential for guiding treatment strategies with the recent approvals of osimertinib and immunotherapy in the adjuvant setting.

In Silico Identification of Potential Inhibitors of the Wnt Signaling Pathway in Human Breast Cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer is the leading worldwide cause of cancer-related deaths in women. The prospection and development of new substances with antitumoral potential is of great importance for the treatment of this disease. The objective of this work was to identify a commercial drug or ligand that could potentially bind to the FZD7 transmembrane protein and inactivate the Wnt signaling pathway in triple-negative breast cancer cells. We aimed at computationally modeling the FZD7, Wnt3, and Wnt3a proteins, at making them available in protein model databases, and at conducting docking analysis to assess the binding free energy between FZD7 and the selected ligands. The Wnt3 and Wnt3a proteins were modeled by homology modeling, and the FZD7 protein was modeled by homology modeling and ab initio modeling. The ligands were selected based on their similarity to the palmitoleic acid and were gathered from the ZINC database. A total of 30 commercially available ligands were found in the ZINC database. The docking results show that the ligands zinc08221009, zinc13546050, zinc05260769, zinc04529321, and zinc05972969 are good candidates for novel drug development. The created models and conducted analysis by this work will most certainly help in future research on the Wnt signaling pathway and its components.