PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Arne Warth AU - Roland Penzel AU - Heike Lindenmaier AU - Regine Brandt AU - Albrecht Stenzinger AU - Esther Herpel AU - Benjamin Goeppert AU - Michael Thomas AU - Felix J.F. Herth AU - Hendrik Dienemann AU - Philipp A. Schnabel AU - Peter Schirmacher AU - Hans Hoffmann AU - Thomas Muley AU - Wilko Weichert TI - <em>EGFR</em>, <em>KRAS</em>, <em>BRAF</em> and <em>ALK</em> gene alterations in lung adenocarcinomas: patient outcome, interplay with morphology and immunophenotype AID - 10.1183/09031936.00018013 DP - 2014 Mar 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 872--883 VI - 43 IP - 3 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/43/3/872.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/43/3/872.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Mar 01; 43 AB - Numerous studies have been published on single aspects of pulmonary adenocarcinoma (ADC). To comprehensively link clinically relevant ADC characteristics, we evaluated established morphological, diagnostic and predictive biomarkers in 425 resected ADCs. Morphology was reclassified. Cytokeratin-7, thyroid transcription factor (TTF)1, napsin A, thymidylate synthase and excision repair cross-complementing rodent repair deficiency complementation group-1 expression, anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements as well as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), V-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homologue (KRAS) and v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1 (BRAF) mutations were analysed. All characteristics were correlated with clinical and survival parameters. Morphological ADC subtypes were significantly associated with smoking history and distinct patterns of diagnostic biomarkers. KRAS mutations were prevalent in male smokers, while EGFR mutations were associated with female sex, nonsmoking and lepidic as well as micropapillary growth patterns. TTF1 expression (hazard ratio (HR) for overall survival 0.61, p=0.021) and BRAF mutations (HR for disease-free survival 2.0, p=0.046) were found to be morphology- and stage-independent predictors of survival in multivariate analysis. Adjuvant radio-/chemotherapy, in some instances, strongly impacted on the prognostic effect of both diagnostic and predictive biomarkers. Our data draw a comprehensive picture of the prevalence and interplay of established histological and molecular ADC characteristics. These data will help to develop time- and cost-effective diagnostic and treatment algorithms for ADC. Morphological, diagnostic and predictive biomarkers, and clinical characteristics of pulmonary adenocarcinomas http://ow.ly/skRky