Disease progression patterns and molecular resistance mechanisms to crizotinib of lung adenocarcinoma harboring ROS1 rearrangements

This retrospective study investigated the association between the pattern of disease progression and molecular mechanism of acquired resistance in a large cohort of 49 patients with ROS1-rearranged advanced non-small-cell lung cancer treated with first-line crizotinib. We found that treatment-emergent ROS1 point mutations were the major molecular mechanism of crizotinib resistance, particularly for patients who developed extracranial-only disease progression. Our findings highlight the importance of rebiopsy and gene testing for subsequent-line therapeutic management.