Variation at TP63 has recently been shown to be associated with non-small cell lung cancer patients (NSCLC) in the Chinese population. There is some clinical evidence for the use of TP63 mutations as prognostic and predictive biomarker. The aim of this study is to investigate mutations and prognosis of NSCLC harboring TP63 mutations.
A total of 1236 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer were recruited between July 2012 and December 2016. The status of TP63 mutations and other genes were detected by next generation sequencing.
TP63 gene mutation rate was 2.02% (25/1236) in non-small cell lung cancer, including R643* (1 patient), H247N (1 patient), A139V (1 patient), V626F (1 patient), Q70* (1 patient), Q274E (1 patient), H615D (1 patient), R350T (1 patient), Y202Kfs*29 (1 patient), P229H (1 patient), M40V (1 patient), E409Q (1 patient), V179M (1 patient), W658* (1 patient), S365* (1 patient), T193M (1 patient), L50F (1 patient), A554E (1 patient), R226H (1 patient), Q99* (1 patient), S310N (1 patient), T169N (1 patient), R266Q (1 patient), D372H (1 patient), and P492T (1 patient), and median overall survival (OS) for these patients was 15.0 months. Among them, all patients were TP63 gene with co-occurring mutations. Briefly, patients with (n = 5) or without (n = 20) co-occurring EGFR mutations had a median OS of 22.5 months and 14.0 months respectively (P = 0.23); patients with (n = 21) or without (n = 4) co-occurring TP53 mutations had a median OS of 15.0 months and 13.0 months respectively (P = 0.33); patients with (n = 5) or without (n = 20) co-occurring BRAF mutations had a median OS of 14.0 months and 15.0 months respectively (P = 0.72); patients with (n = 5) or without (n = 20) co-occurring KRAS mutations had a median OS of 6.0 months and not up to now respectively (P < 0.01).
TP63 is structurally and functionally similar to TP53 and their activity as transcription factors is regulated by a wide repertoire of shared and unique post-translational modifications and interactions with regulatory cofactors. EGFR, TP53 and BRAF gene accompanied may have less correlation with TP63 mutation in NSCLC patients. KRAS accompanied mutations might play a worse prognosis in TP63 gene mutation NSCLC.
The authors.
Has not received any funding.
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.