ROS1 rearranged nonsmall cell lung cancer and crizotinib: An Indian experience

ROS1 rearrangement acts as a driver mutation in 1-2% of NSCLC. Crizotinib is approved in this situation both in treatment naïve and pre-treated patients. Here we report our experience with crizotinib in patients with advanced NSCLC harbouring ROS1 rearrangement. Eleven patients were included in our study. More than half of our patients had associated comorbidities and one fourth of them had a compromised performance status. Out of 11 patients, 5 of them were exposed to crizotinib .The response rates among crizotinib treated patients was 80%. With a median follow up of 9 months, median PFS and OS were 5.4 months and 8.5 months respectively for the entire population. Analyzing the outcomes separately , median PFS and OS was not reached for those who received crizotinib compared to median PFS of 2.5 months and median OS of 4.2 months in those who were not exposed to crizotinib. The difference was statistically significant. Estimated 1 year OS was 80% for those who received crizotinib compared to 18% for who did not receive crizotinib. In conclusion, crizotinib is effective with acceptable side effect profile in patients with ROS1 rearranged NSCLC in our population.