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Abstract Background About 10% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are harbored as uncommon mutations. This study aimed to explore the efficacy and safety of dacomitinib, a second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKIs), in treating uncommon EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC. Methods Treatment-naïve advanced NSCLC patients treated with dacomitinib at Hunan Cancer Hospital with uncommon EGFR mutations were evaluated. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and safety. Result Between December 2019 and December 2021, a total of 16 patients was included. Median PFS was 14.0 (95% CI 4.32–23.7) months, and median OS was not reached. ORR was 68.8% (95% CI 41.3 to 89.0%) and DCR was 93.8% (95%CI 69.8 to 99.8%), including three achieving complete remission (CR) and eight achieving partial remission (PR). Median PFS for patients with brain metastasis was 9.0 (95%CI 6.9 to 11.1) months. Intracranial ORR was 100%, including 2 CR and 4 PR. Major treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) included rash (87.5%), paronychia (62.5%), oral ulcers (50.0%), and diarrhea (50.0%), none of which were ≥ grade 3 TRAEs. Conclusions Dacomitinib showed good activity and manageable toxicity in NSCLC patients with uncommon EGFR mutations.

Low phosphate availability is a major constraint on plant growth and agricultural productivity. Engineering a crop with enhanced low phosphate tolerance by transgenic technique could be one way of alleviating agricultural losses due to phosphate deficiency. In this study, we reported that transgenic maize plants that overexpressed the Thellungiella halophila vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase gene (TsVP) were more tolerant to phosphate deficit stress than the wild type. Under phosphate sufficient conditions, transgenic plants showed more vigorous root growth than the wild type. When phosphate deficit stress was imposed, they also developed more robust root systems than the wild type, this advantage facilitated phosphate uptake, which meant that transgenic plants accumulated more phosphorus. So the growth and development in the transgenic maize plants were not damaged as much as in the wild type plants under phosphate limitation. Overexpression of TsVP increased the expression of genes involved in auxin transport, which indicated that the development of larger root systems in transgenic plants might be due in part to enhanced auxin transport which controls developmental events in plants. Moreover, transgenic plants showed less reproductive development retardation and a higher grain yield per plant than the wild type plants when grown in a low phosphate soil. The phenotypes of transgenic maize plants suggested that the overexpression of TsVP led to larger root systems that allowed transgenic maize plants to take up more phosphate, which led to less injury and better performance than the wild type under phosphate deficiency conditions. This study describes a feasible strategy for improving low phosphate tolerance in maize and reducing agricultural losses caused by phosphate deficit stress.