Zeitschrift für Immunbiologie

Development and Clinical Application of Liquidchip Luminex Assay in the Detection of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and K-Ras Mutation

Abstract

Yan Zhou, Yangyang Xu, Xiaoqian Wang, Xiaohui Liang and Jiatao Lou

Purpose: The success of molecular targeted cancer therapy relies on the accurate detection of the mutated gene. We attempted to develop a rapid, accurate, high sensitive and specific liquidchip luminex method for the detection of EGFR and K-ras mutation, both of which are important biomarkers for the personalized treatment of advanced lung cancer patients.

Materials and methods: Using the liquidchip technology, we developed a luminex system by combining PCRLDR (Polymerase Chain Reaction- Ligase Detection Reaction) with luminex platform for the detection of EGFR and K-ras mutation. To verify the clinical application of this liquidchip luminex system, we compared its detection results with those from the gold standard sequencing method through analysis of 100 patients.

Results: The developed luminex system showed high flux, sensitivity and specificity for EGFR and K-ras gene mutation detection. Compared with sequencing for the EGFR and K-ras gene mutation detection, this luminex system showed no obvious difference in the mutation rates among different ages, histological classification and TNM stages. However, for the exon 21 L585R and exon 19 (including the E746-A750 deletion mutant), the luminex method showed even more effective and specificity and demonstrated obvious difference to sequencing (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Our liquidchip luminex system has a wide prospect of clinical application, especially for the detection of EGFR exon 21 L585R and 19 and can be used for early screening and individual therapy of patients with lung cancer.