Abstract 2397: Double lung transplantation (DLT) in patients with stage IVA lung-limited non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC): A case series
Authors: Chae Young Kwang , Demir Tarik , Chung Liam Il-Young , Moloney Carolyn , Tomic Rade , Bharat Ankit 
Published: March 2024

Introduction: Despite technological advances and expanded indications in lung transplantation, lung cancer constituted less than 0.1% of the lung transplantation over the past two decades. DLT may offer curative treatment for stage IVA NSCLC patients without extrapulmonary disease. We present a case series of consecutive NSCLC patients who underwent DLT.

Methods: Patients treated with DLT were identified between 09/2021 and 09/2023 at Canning Thoracic Institute of Northwestern University. All patients had enrolled in the DLT registry aimed for lung-limited malignancies (DREAM) study (NCT05671887). Exclusion criteria include: presence of extrapulmonary disease and medical ineligibility for lung transplantation. All patients were followed up with computed tomography and tumor-informed ctDNA assay every 12 weeks.

Results: Five patients with stage IVA NSCLC who underwent DLT were included. Three (60%) patients had invasive mucinous, and two (40%) had invasive non-mucinous adenocarcinoma histology. One of the two invasive non-mucinous patients had acinar, and the other had mixed lepidic, papillary, and acinar histology. Patients were aged 56-70; one (20%) was Asian, four (80%) were White, three (60%) were male, and two (40%) had a history of smoking. No patient had a past medical history of interstitial lung disease (ILD) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). All patients had high oxygen requirements before DLT due to cancer progression. Pre-transplant endobronchial ultrasound and evaluation of bilateral pneumonectomy lungs found no lymph node involvement (pN0). One patient had an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutated cancer and but had failed relevant targeted therapy prior to transplant. All patients had disease progression on standard of care treatments with/without clinical trials. The indication for DLT was respiratory failure or refractory cancer for all patients. After DLT, one patient had a recurrence of the disease at 18 months with a 1cm solid nodule and was treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Both original and recurrent tumors had invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma histology, negative PD-L1 expression, and the same JAK3 c.2174C&gt;T, P725L mutated clone. It suggests that the recurrence likely arose from the original cancer. Transplant rejection did not occur in any of the cases. Following the transplant, there was no requirement for oxygen therapy for any patient. All patients are alive with 25, 15, 6, 3, and 1-month posttransplant follow-up.

Conclusion: Five patients underwent DLT successfully without significant complications. Notably, one patient (25 months post-transplant) experienced cancer recurrence 18 months post-transplant and was effectively treated with SBRT. Ongoing DREAM study will continue to investigate the role of DLT in stage IVA NSCLC patients (especially in pN0).

Citation Format: Young Kwang Chae, Tarik Demir, Liam Il-Young Chung, Carolyn Moloney, Rade Tomic, Ankit Bharat. Double lung transplantation (DLT) in patients with stage IVA lung-limited non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC): A case series [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2397.