Comparison of EGFR mutation rates in lung adenocarcinoma tissue and pleural effusion samples

Abstract

ABSTRACT.The goal of the current study was to investigate the differences in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation rates in tumor tissue and pleural effusion specimens from patients with lung adenocarcinoma. PCR amplification and gene sequencing were used to detect EGFR mutations in exons 18, 19, 20, and 21 in tumor tissue and pleural effusion samples from 50 patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. The EGFR mutation rate was 34.0% in tissue samples from patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma. There were 11 cases with exon 19 mutations and 6 cases with exon 21 mutations. The EGFR mutation rate was 30.0% in pleural effusion specimens, including 10 cases with exon 19 mutation and 5 cases with exon 21 mutations. Although the tissue samples had a slightly higher mutation rate compared to the pleural effusion samples, the difference was not statistically significant. These results indicate that the EGFR mutation rate detected in pleural effusion specimens from patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma is similar to that detected in tumor tissue samples. Therefore, pleural effusion specimens can potentially be used for EGFR mutation detection in advanced lung adenocarcinoma.

A Combined test using both cell sediment and supernatant cell‐free DNA in pleural effusion shows increased sensitivity in detecting activating EGFR mutation in lung cancer patients

“…Monaco et al 21 reported that EGFR status of primary lung carcinomas might not predict the status in the corresponding metastases. By contrast, Guan et al found that while tissue samples had a slightly higher mutation rate compared to pleural effusion samples, the difference was not statistically significant. Our results showed that the detection of the mutant EGFR in cell sediment and supernatant ccfDNA were 51.1% (23/45) and 44.4% (20/45), indicating that these two materials show often a discordance in EGFR mutation analysis (Tables and ).…”

Novel insights into the systemic treatment of lung cancer malignant pleural effusion

“…MPE could be used to detect the presence of EGFR mutations, especially when there is not enough tissue available for mutational analysis. The results of the main studies assessing the feasibility of detection of EGFR mutations in MPE are summarized in Table …”

“…The results of the main studies assessing the feasibility of detection of EGFR mutations in MPE are summarized in Table 1. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] The quality of the MPE samples is essential to improve quantity and quality of tumour cells for mutational analysis. After enrichment of pleural fluid, 27 the percentage of the tumour cells in MPE was increased from 0.64% to 40.8%.…”

Molecular Testing on Pleural Fluid Samples

“…The utility of soluble protein-based biomarkers has been studied for many years in MPE, including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 15 and 22%, respectively. The combination of these markers resulted in a sensitivity of 54%.…”