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Review
. 2021 Dec 15:11:788084.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.788084. eCollection 2021.

KRAS Mutations in Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Lung

Fabian Acker  1 , Jan Stratmann  1 , Lukas Aspacher  1 , Ngoc Thien Thu Nguyen  1 , Sebastian Wagner  1 , Hubert Serve  1 , Peter J Wild  2   3   4 , Martin Sebastian  1
Affiliations
Review

KRAS Mutations in Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Lung

Fabian Acker et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated oncogenes in cancer, enabling tumor proliferation and maintenance. After various approaches to target KRAS have failed over the past decades, the first specific inhibitor of the p.G12C mutation of KRAS was recently approved by the FDA after showing promising results in adenocarcinomas of the lung and other solid tumors. Lung cancer, the most common cancer worldwide, is a promising use case for these new therapies, as adenocarcinomas in particular frequently harbor KRAS mutations. However, in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung, KRAS mutations are rare and their impact on clinical outcome is poorly understood. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge on the prevalence and prognostic and predictive significance of KRAS mutations in the context of SCC.

Keywords: KRAS; NSCLC; RAS; lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC); review.

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Conflict of interest statement

PW has received consulting fees and honoraria (private/institutional) for lectures by Bayer, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Roche, MSD, Astellas Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Molecular Health, Sophia Genetics, Qiagen, Eli Lilly, Myriad, Hedera Dx, and Astra Zeneca. MS has received consulting fees and honoraria for lectures by Novartis, BMS, Roche, Lilly, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Pfizer, MSD, Astra-Zeneca, Celgene, AbbVie, Takeda, Janssen-Cilag, and Tesaro. JS has received consulting fees and honoraria for lectures by Novartis, BMS, Leo Pharma, Oncopeptides, Astra-Zeneca, Roche, Takeda, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Amgen, and Pfizer. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors MS.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of KRAS mutations in squamous cell carcinomas (A, B) and adenocarcinomas (C, D) of the lung as reported by the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) Lungscape iBiobank [Ref. (4)]. (A, C) show the proportion of KRAS mutated (mut) and KRAS wild-type (wt) patients. (B, D) show the frequencies of the individual KRAS mutations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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