Correlation of EGFR expression, gene copy number and clinicopathological status in NSCLC

Diagnostic Pathology

Torsten Goldmann¹  Martin Reck¹  Ekkehard Vollmer¹  Philipp A Schnabel³  Rudolf M Huber²  Nils Reinmuth¹  Christian Kugler¹  Iris Watermann¹  Rania Gaber¹ 

[1] Airway Research Center North (ARCN), Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Borstel, Germany;Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich, (CPC-M), Member of the German Center for Lung Research, München, Germany;Translational Lung Research Center (TLRC), Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Heidelberg, Germany

关键词: Antibody clones;    Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization;    Immunohistochemistry;    Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR);    Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC);   

Others  :  1149904
DOI  :  10.1186/s13000-014-0165-0

 received in 2014-07-07, accepted in 2014-08-16,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) targeting therapies are currently of great relevance for the treatment of lung cancer. For this reason, in addition to mutational analysis immunohistochemistry (IHC) of EGFR in lung cancer has been discussed for the decision making of according therapeutic strategies. The aim of this study was to obtain standardization of EGFR-expression methods for the selection of patients who might benefit of EGFR targeting therapies.

Methods

As a starting point of a broad investigation, aimed at elucidating the expression of EGFR on different biological levels, four EGFR specific antibodies were analyzed concerning potential differences in expression levels by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and correlated with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis and clinicopathological data. 206 tumor tissues were analyzed in a tissue microarray format employing immunohistochemistry with four different antibodies including Dako PharmDx kit (clone 2-18C9), clone 31G7, clone 2.1E1 and clone SP84 using three different scoring methods. Protein expression was compared to FISH utilizing two different probes.

Results

EGFR protein expression determined by IHC with Dako PharmDx kit, clone 31G7 and clone 2.1E1 (p???0.05) correlated significantly with both FISH probes independently of the three scoring methods; best correlation is shown for 31G7 using the scoring method that defined EGFR positivity when???10% of the tumor cells show membranous staining of moderate and severe intensity (p?=?0.001).

Conclusion

Overall, our data show differences in EGFR expression determined by IHC, due to the applied antibody. Highest concordance with FISH is shown for antibody clone 31G7, evaluated with score B (p?=?0.001). On this account, this antibody clone might by utilized for standard evaluation of EGFR expression by IHC.

Virtual slides

The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/13000_2014_165. webcite

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Gaber et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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