Immunohistochemistry using epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-specific antibodies of delE746-A750 and L858R in lung adenocarcinomas

Abstract

To evaluate the immunohistochemical detection of epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) mutations using two EGFR mutation-specific monoclonal antibodies: delE746-A750 and L858R. A total of 175 paraffin-embedded lung adenocarcinoma tissue samples previously genotyped by directive DNA sequencing were subject to immunostaining using delE746-A750 and L858R antibodies. There was no significant difference of mutation detection between DNA sequence analysis and delE746-A750 and/or L858R immunostaining (33.7% vs 30.9%, P > 0.05). The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of immunostaining using these two EGFR mutation-specific antibodies were 83.1%, 95.7%, 90.7% and 90.9%, respectively. With high sensitivity and good specificity, immunohistochemistry using EGFR mutation-specific monoclonal antibodies is an adequate, easy and cost-effective prescreening method to detect EGFR mutations using paraffin-embedded tissue specimens of lung adenocarcinomas.