Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Publication Date

3-4-2024

Journal

NPJ Precision Oncology

Abstract

Patients treated with RET protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) selpercatinib or pralsetinib develop RET TKI resistance by secondary RET mutations or alterative oncogenes, of which alterative oncogenes pose a greater challenge for disease management because of multiple potential mechanisms and the unclear tolerability of drug combinations. A patient with metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) harboring a RET activation loop D898_E901del mutation was treated with selpercatinib. Molecular alterations were monitored with tissue biopsies and cfDNA during the treatment. The selpercatinib-responsive MTC progressed with an acquired ETV6::NTRK3 fusion, which was controlled by selpercatinib plus the NTRK inhibitor larotrectinib. Subsequently, tumor progressed with an acquired EML4::ALK fusion. Combination of selpercatinib with the dual NTRK/ALK inhibitor entrectinib reduced the tumor burden, which was followed by appearance of NTRK3 solvent-front G623R mutation. Preclinical experiments validated selpercatinib plus larotrectinib or entrectinib inhibited RET/NTRK3 dependent cells, whereas selpercatinib plus entrectinib was necessary to inhibit cells with RET/NTRK3/ALK triple alterations or a mixture of cell population carrying these genetic alterations. Thus, RET-altered MTC adapted to selpercatinib and larotrectinib with acquisition of ETV6::NTRK3 and EML4::ALK oncogenes can be managed by combination of selpercatinib and entrectinib providing proof-of-concept of urgency of incorporating molecular profiling in real-time and personalized N-of-1 care transcending one-size-fits-all approach.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.