scholarly journals Discordance between Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization and Immunohistochemistry Analysis of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase Rearrangement in Indian Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (02) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar ◽  
Kishore Kumar ◽  
Harinder Pal Singh ◽  
Suresh Nair ◽  
Amol Patel ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims This study aims to evaluate the incidence of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutation in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) incorporating fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods and to look for any discordance. Methods We evaluated 101 samples obtained from an enriched cohort of NSCLCs patients from the Army Hospital Research and Referral, New Delhi, India, between November 2016 and November 2018. IHC was performed using the highly-sensitive D5F3 rabbit monoclonal primary antibody. FISH was performed with dual-color, break-apart probe (ZytoLight SPEC) on formalin-fixed, and paraffin-embedded tissue. Discordance between IHC and FISH for ALK rearrangements was evaluated. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was performed to identify any association of ALK presence (by IHC and FISH) with smoking brain metastasis, programmed death-ligand (PD-L1) expression, pleural effusion, and histopathological subtype. Results A total of 7.92% (8/101) cases tested by IHC and 9.9% (10/101) cases tested by FISH were positive for ALK rearrangement. Of 93 ALK IHC-negative cases, 4 were ALK FISH-positive, whereas of 91 ALK FISH-negative cases, 4 were ALK IHC-positive cases. The correlation analysis demonstrated no or very weak correlation in ALK mutations by IHC or FISH with smoking, brain metastasis, PD-L1 expression, pleural effusion, and histopathological examination, except a weak positive correlation (r = 0.33) observed between brain metastasis and ALK rearrangement identified by FISH. Conclusions Our study demonstrated a somewhat similar incidence of ALK FISH-positive cases and ALK IHC-positive cases, though the incidence was numerically higher for ALK-FISH method.

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 3939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenya Tang ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Guilin Tang ◽  
L. Jeffrey Medeiros

In 2011, the Vysis Break Apart ALK fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a companion diagnostic for detecting ALK rearrangement in lung cancer patients who may benefit from treatment of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. This assay is the current “gold standard”. According to updated ALK testing guidelines from the College of American Pathologists, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the Association for Molecular Pathology published in 2018, ALK immunohistochemistry is formally an alternative to ALK FISH, and simultaneous detection of multiple hot spots, including, at least, ALK, ROS1, RET, MET, ERBB2, BRAF and KRAS genes is also recommended while performing next generation sequencing (NGS)-based testing. Therefore, ALK status in a specimen can be tested by different methods and platforms, even in the same institution or laboratory. In this review, we discuss several clinically relevant technical aspects of ALK FISH, including pros and cons of the unique two-step (50- to 100-cell) analysis approach employed in the Vysis Break Apart ALK FISH assay, including: the preset cutoff value of ≥15% for a positive result; technical aspects and biology of discordant results obtained by different methods; and incidental findings, such as ALK copy number gain or amplification and co-existent driver mutations. These issues have practical implications for ALK testing in the clinical laboratory following the updated guidelines.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Mohanad Ali AlBayyaa ◽  
Ban A. Abdulmajeed

Background/Aim: Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) rearrangement has evaluated activity of NSCLC compared with other molecular subtypes (EGFR, KRAS). Many studies demonstrated that patients with ALK rearrangement positive NSCLC have improved with a good response rates and progression (free survival) when treated with either monotherapy or by a combination therapy compared with EGFR-mutated, KRAS/EGFR/ALK wild type or KRAS-mutated. The aim of this study was to detect and study the signal pattern of normal ALK and compare it to that of mutated ALK with gene rearrangement in cases of non-small cell lung cancer and Inflammatory conditions by implementing the CISH technique. In addition to correlate ALK signal pattern with the histopathological type and grade as well as the age and sex of the patients.Materials & Methods: Forty patients with NSCLC and Inflammatory diseases were enrolled in a comparative cross sectional study. The tissue blocks were sectioned on non-charged slides for the preparation of routine H&E staining. Positively charged slides were used for tissue sections prepared for chromogenic in situ hybridization procedure to detect ALK gene.Results: ALK gene signal break apart was detected in (18/20, 90%) of malignant cases; (0/20, 0%) of non-neoplastic lung lesions. There was a significant statistical difference in their distribution, p < 0.05. While There was no significant association between any disease status and sex P value = 1.000NS. The CISH test was 100% sensitive using negative score as a cutoff point and 90.9% specific. The score was divided into three levels that categorized the cases, so there were six cases in score one (1-32%), nine cases in score two (33-67%) and three cases in score three (68-100%).Conclusion: Detection of ALK rearrangement in the early diagnosis of NSCLC is highly sensitive and can save a lot of efforts in planning chemotherapy regimens. Results were very promising in identifying this mutation by a sensitive and highly specific test. The ALK gene rearrangement could be an early mutation and it is needed as an initiating step for the carcinogenesis process. The presence of a double gene mutation, however, could be the cause of a higher-grade cancer.


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