Decoding the EGFR mutation-induced drug resistance in lung cancer treatment by local surface geometric properties

• A method for predicting the EGFR mutation-induced drug resistance is proposed.
• Four types of local surface changes are defined for the mutants compared with wild-type EGFR.
• Three types of the changes have strong correlation with the progression-free survival (PFS).
• The number of convex shapes also shows a correlation with the PFS.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-induced drug resistance leads to a limited efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors during lung cancer treatments. In this study, we explore the correlations between the local surface geometric properties of EGFR mutants and the progression-free survival (PFS). The geometric properties include local surface changes (four types) of the EGFR mutants compared with the wild-type EGFR, and the convex degrees of these local surfaces. Our analysis results show that the Spearman׳s rank correlation coefficients between the PFS and three types of local surface properties are all greater than 0.6 with small P-values, implying a high significance. Moreover, the number of atoms with solid angles in the ranges of [0.71, 1], [0.61, 1] or [0.5, 1], indicating the convex degree of a local EGFR surface, also shows a strong correlation with the PFS. Overall, these characteristics can be efficiently applied to the prediction of drug resistance in lung cancer treatments, and easily extended to other cancer treatments.