EML4-ALK S1206Y

ALK rearrangements are detected in approximately 4% of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) crizotinib, alectinib, brigatinib, ceritinib, and lorlatinib have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of ALK-positive NSCLC. The dPCR method was highly sensitive in detecting gene mutations with low allele frequency. It was also found to be able to monitor variable resistance mutations over time during ALK-TKI treatment. In addition, we found that the appearance of G1202R did not always indicate clinical acquisition of resistance that required drug modification.

Here, we report, for the first time, a novel, sequentially-evolved EML4-ALK variant 3 G1202R/S1206Y double mutation in cis detected in a patient with ALK-positive NSCLC after disease progression on sequential crizotinib, alectinib, and then lorlatinib. Three-dimensional computer modeling of this double mutation and other G1202R-based double mutations with lorlatinib (ALK G1202R/L1196M, ALK G1202R/F1174C, ALK G1202R/l1198F, ALK G1202R/G1269A) were provided to reveal how these double mutations may confer resistance to lorlatinib through diverse steric hindrances in the ALK kinase domain. In addition, we performed a comprehensive literature review on published acquired double or triple ALK mutations that are resistant to lorlatinib from both patient samples and in vitro mutagenesis experiments.