The efficacy of targeted therapies in metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the lung: a Turkish Oncology Group multicentre study.

This multicentre real-world study evaluated the efficacy of targeted therapies in Turkish patients with metastatic squamous cell lung carcinoma harbouring driver mutations. Sixty-four patients with alterations such as EGFR, ALK, and ROS1 who received targeted agents were retrospectively analysed. EGFR mutations were most common (67.2%). Among EGFR-TKI-treated patients, median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 12.4 and 14.3 months, respectively. Alectinib yielded a median PFS of 18.6 months and OS of 29.8 months in ALK-positive patients, while crizotinib produced a median PFS and OS of 7 months in ROS1-positive patients. The overall response rate was 50% and the disease control rate 84.4%. Although targeted therapies prolonged PFS compared with chemotherapy, this improvement did not translate into a significant OS advantage, likely influenced by retrospective design and treatment crossover. Findings represent real-world outcomes in a molecularly defined subgroup.