THE CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DETECTION OF EGFR MUTATION IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF PATIENTS WITH ADVANCED NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER

MINGJUAN ZHANG*, LUMING LI*, AIRONG WANG, LANFANG ZHANG, JINXIU XU, HONGYUN LIU

Department of Chemotherapy Unit 2, Weihai Municipal Hospital, Weihai, Shandong 264200, China

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of detection of EGFR mutation in peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Methods: Collected the clinical information, pathological specimen and peripheral blood plasma of 140 initial treatment patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (III-IV). Recorded the time from the blood samples collection to plasma separation. Sequence comparison of the EGFR gene mutation status and characteristics between in tissues and peripheral blood.

Results: The results revealed that EGFR mutation rate was highly consistent in tissue and peripheral blood and these mutations predominantly occurred in exon 19 and 21. EGFR gene detection in peripheral blood showed that sensitivity was 78.43%, specificity was 55.26%, positive predictive value was 82.47%, negative predictive value was 48.84%. The higher mutation rate of EGFR gene was detected in the plasma separated within 2 hours.

Conclusion: The detection rate of EGFR gene mutation in free DNA was higher in plasma separation within 2 hours after phlebo- tomize. Detection of EGFR gene mutation in peripheral blood is an important supplement for tissue detection in patients with EGFR- TKI.