Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Published Online First: 1 October 2007. doi:10.1136/jcp.2007.051425
Journal of Clinical Pathology 2008;61:487-493
Copyright © 2008 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Association of Clinical Pathologists.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Detection of epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations in cytology specimens from patients with non-small cell lung cancer utilising high-resolution melting amplicon analysis

G D Smith1, B E Chadwick2, C Willmore-Payne1, J S Bentz2

1 Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP) Laboratories, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2 Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Dr J S Bentz, Department of Pathology, Huntsman Cancer Hospital at the University of Utah Medical Center, 1950 Circle of Hope Drive, Suite 3860, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA. E-mail: bentzj{at}aruplab.com

Background: Activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations have been implicated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and have also been clinically correlated with patient sensitivity to targeted EGFR inhibitors.

Aim: To describe a technique for determining EGFR mutation status on archival fine needle aspirate (FNA) specimens from advanced NSCLC patients.

Methods: Eleven archival FNA slides from patients with advanced NSCLC were examined for diagnostic material to identify tumour cell-enriched regions. EGFR mutation status was determined using a slide-scrape DNA extraction protocol of selected tumour cell regions on the smear slides, followed by real time PCR and high resolution melt analysis (HRMAA) of EGFR exons 18, 19, 20, and 21, followed by sequence analysis.

Results: All DNA samples were successfully amplified by PCR. Three adenocarcinoma patient samples contained EGFR mutations in exon 19 (L747-P753insS). One of the three had an additional exon 19 mutation (A755D).

Conclusions: Archival cytology slides from patients with NSCLC can be used to determine EGFR mutation status by PCR, HRMAA, and sequencing. The ability to use archival cytology slides greatly increases the potential material available for molecular analysis in diagnosis and selection of patients for targeted therapeutic agents.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

Pathology jobs

Pathology jobs