Retrospective Epidemiology Study Of ALK Rearrangement In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients In The Middle East & North Africa

This is a retrospective, cross-sectional non-interventional epidemiology study to investigate the prevalence of ALK rearrangement in NSCLC patients in Middle East \& North Africa. Approximately 700 retained tumor tissue specimens (tissue block) of patients previously diagnosed with NSCLC will be selected \& subjected to ALK immune-staining using Ventana anti-ALK (D5F3) Rabbit Monoclonal Primary Antibody combined with OptiView Benchmark System in 6-8 centers in 5-7 countries in the MENA region. The tissue samples of NSCLC cases will be retrieved from tissue banks of the molecular diagnostic units \& pathology departments in these study centers. The histological diagnosis will be confirmed by the pathologists. The retained samples will then be tested by performing the Ventana ALK-IHC to assess the absence or presence of the ALK rearrangement by the detection of the ALK protein in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded NSCLC stored tissue samples using Ventana anti-ALK (D5F3) Rabbit Monoclonal Primary Antibody (Roche Diagnostics GmbH) in the selected study centers. The results of ALK testing within this study population will then be used to establish the prevalence of ALK rearrangement in MENA NSCLC patients. The patients' characteristics, demographic, clinical and pathologic parameters will be obtained from their medical records \& analyzed to determine any association with the presence of the EML4-ALK fusion gene in MENA NSCLC patients. The assessment of concordance of the results between FISH \& IHC will be done in 2-3 centers. Results of FISH testing will be collected \& recorded, if the retained tissue samples had been previously tested. If not, the Vysis FISH test will be performed, to assess the concordance between the results obtained using Vysis Break-apart FISH \& Ventana IHC testing methods for ALK rearrangement detection.