Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)- rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) respond well to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), and echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)-ALK-rearranged NSCLC account for the majority of those patients. However, few studies have evaluated ALK-TKIs treatment for patients with huntingtin-interacting protein 1 (HIP1)-ALK fusions. This retrospective study evaluated the clinicopathological characteristics, genomic features, response to ALK-TKIs, and resistance mechanisms in 11 cases with HIP1-ALK fusions from 5 Chinese centers. Patients who received crizotinib at the Chinese centers had an objective response rate of 90% [9/10 cases, 95% confident index (CI): 54.1-99.5%], median progression free survival of 17.9 months (95% CI: 5.8-NA months), and median overall survival of 58.8 months (95% CI: 24.7-NA months). One patient who received first-line lorlatinib treatment achieved partial response for >26.5 months. Despite the small sample size, HIP1-ALK (H21:A20) variant was the most common variant (4/11 cases, 36.4%) and H21:A20 variant was associated with better outcome. Among the 11 cases, there were 8 patients having available specimens for genetic testing before ALK-TKI treatment and 4 patients undergoing biopsy after ALK-TKI failure. The most common coexisting gene was TP53 among 11 patients and 2 of 4 patients after crizotinib failure harbored acquired ALK mutations (e.g., L1152V/Q1146K and L1196M). Brigatinib treatment appeared to be effective for a patient who failed crizotinib treatment because of the L1152V/Q1146K mutations, which might be related to increased binding affinity to these mutants. Although HIP1-ALK-rearranged NSCLC appears to initially respond well to ALK-TKIs, crizotinib resistance may be correlated with the AKAP9-BRAF fusion, ALK compound mutations (L1152V/Q1146K), and the ALK L1196M mutation. Larger studies are needed to evaluate the significance of HIP1-ALK-rearranged NSCLC. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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