Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutations in Japanese Men with Lung Adenocarcinomas

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations play a vital role in the prognosis of patientswith lung adenocarcinoma. Such somatic mutations are more common in women who are non-smokers withadenocarcinoma and are of Asian origin. However, to our knowledge, there are few studies that have focusedon men. Materials and
Methods: One hundred and eighty-four consecutive patients (90 men and 94 women) ofresected lung adenocarcinoma were studied retrospectively.
Results: EGFR mutations were positive in 48.9%and negative (wild type) in 51.1%. Overall mutation was significant in women (66.0% vs. 32.2%) compared withmen (p<0.001). For overall patients, EGFR mutation status was associated with gender, pStage, pT status, lepidicdominant histologic subtype, pure or mixed ground-glass nodule type on computed tomography and smokingstatus. However, in men, EGFR mutation status was only associated with lepidic dominant histologic subtypeand not the other variables. Interestingly, the Brinkman index of men with mutant EGFR also did not differfrom that for the wild type (680.0±619.3 vs. 813.1±552.1 p=0.1077).
Conclusions: The clinical characteristicsof men with lung adenocarcinoma related to EGFR mutation are not always similar to that of overall patients.Especially we failed to find the relationship between EGFR mutations and smoking status in men.