The importance of intratumour and intertumour heterogeneity in non-small cell lung cancer has been extensively interrogated recently. However there is a lack of similar data associated with treatment and survival outcomes in Chinese population. Unicorn-Quest, a prospective observational study of Chinese patients with either primary or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, aims to identify the evolutionary changes from the primary tumour, regional nodes and distant metastases of the same patients and among different patients, through multiregion and longitudinal tumour and nodal collection with next-generation sequencing. By following non-small cell lung cancer from early stage to relapse or distant metastasis, identifying the changes of genomic landscape with correlation with treatment and survival outcomes, this study may help identify unique cancer trajectories and novel therapeutic targets for non-small cell lung cancer in Chinese population.
To study and comprehend the evolutionary and genomic landscape between primary and metastatic sites and the dynamics of intratumour and intertumour heterogeneity over time with reference to the treatment modalities for each Chinese patient with non-small cell lung cancer.