1. Detection of ALK fusion transcripts in FFPE lung cancer samples by NanoString technology.
- Author
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Evangelista AF, Zanon MF, Carloni AC, de Paula FE, Morini MA, Ferreira-Neto M, Soares IC, Miziara JE, de Marchi P, Scapulatempo-Neto C, and Reis RM
- Subjects
- Humans, Immunohistochemistry, In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence, Nanotechnology methods, Retrospective Studies, Transcription, Genetic, Adenocarcinoma genetics, Lung Neoplasms genetics, Oncogene Proteins, Fusion genetics, RNA, Messenger analysis
- Abstract
Background: ALK-rearranged lung cancers exhibit specific pathologic and clinical features and are responsive to anti-ALK therapies. Therefore, the detection of ALK-rearrangement is fundamental for personalized lung cancer therapy. Recently, new molecular techniques, such as NanoString nCounter, have been developed to detect ALK fusions with more accuracy and sensitivity., Methods: In the present study, we intended to validate a NanoString nCounter ALK-fusion panel in routine biopsies of FFPE lung cancer patients. A total of 43 samples were analyzed, 13 ALK-positive and 30 ALK-negative, as previously detected by FISH and/or immunohistochemistry., Results: The NanoString panel detected the presence of the EML4-ALK, KIF5B-ALK and TFG-ALK fusion variants. We observed that all the 13 ALK-positive cases exhibited genetic aberrations by the NanoString methodology. Namely, six cases (46.15%) presented EML-ALK variant 1, two (15.38%) presented EML-ALK variant 2, two (15.38%) presented EML-ALK variant 3a, and three (23.07%) exhibited no variant but presented unbalanced expression between 5'/3' exons, similar to other positive samples. Importantly, for all these analyses, the initial input of RNA was 100 ng, and some cases displayed poor RNA quality measurements., Conclusions: In this study, we reported the great utility of NanoString technology in the assessment of ALK fusions in routine lung biopsies of FFPE specimens.
- Published
- 2017
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