Clinical and computed tomography features (CT) of lung adenocarcinoma with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) status

Background: to analyze the differences in clinical and CT features between patients with lung adenocarcinoma who have EGFR mutation and ALK status with those who have wild type EGFR and ALK negative status. Method: patients with lung adenocarcinoma who were enrolled from July 2013 to October 2017 at the Burgos University Hospital (Spain). Chi squared test, Fishers exact test and Mann Whitney U test were applied to discriminate clinical and CT characteristic between the groups. A p-value 0.05 was regarded to indicate a statistically significant association. Results: an EGFR mutation was identified in 39/349 (11%) and ALK status in 10/349 (3%). The proportion of females and non-smokers in exons 19 and 21 groups was higher than in the wild type group (p< 0.001), however this association was not demonstrated with ALK group and ALK negative status. Pleural effusion and emphysema were found more frequently in patients who had no mutations (p<0.01). Other CT features such as necrosis, satellite nodules, lymphangitic carcinomatosis and local infiltration did not demonstrate statistically significant correlation with EGFR mutation and ALK status Conclusion: clinical and CT imaging features can better predict EGFR mutations than the use of clinical variables alones. The lack of correlation between other CT features could be related to the relative small sample size of the tumors included.