EGFR detection by liquid biopsy: ripe for clinical usage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ullas Batra ◽  
Shrinidhi Nathany ◽  
Mansi Sharma ◽  
Parveen Jain ◽  
Surender Dhanda ◽  
...  

Introduction: With the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) recommendations promoting liquid biopsy as a primary detection tool, a new era of research has begun. The authors aimed to study the concordance of plasma genotyping platforms against the tissue gold standard. Methods: 184 patients with non-small cell lung cancer underwent EGFR genotyping using Cobas, droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) and Therascreen assays from 2019–2020. Results: Of 184 cases, 70 were positive by Cobas, 51 by ddPCR and 69 by Therascreen. The sensitivity of Cobas was 97.1% and the sensitivity of ddPCR was 71%. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.977 for Cobas and 0.846 for ddPCR. Conclusion: In line with the FLAURA trial of osimertinib making its way to first-line and given the IASLC recommendations, it is important to understand the attributes of these tests to initiate appropriate treatment.

2011 ◽  
Vol 135 (12) ◽  
pp. 1570-1575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongjung Park ◽  
Yoonjung Kim ◽  
Jong-Han Lee ◽  
Eun Young Lee ◽  
Hyon-Suk Kim

Context.—Some tumor markers, including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA 21-1), are used for the detection of lung cancer; however, their use is limited because of low sensitivities and high false-positive rates. Objectives.—To investigate the usefulness of an anti-p53 assay in detecting lung cancer and to compare the anti-p53 to CEA and CYFRA 21-1 tumor markers. Design.—Serum samples were collected from 82 patients with lung cancer. Sera were also collected from 79 patients with or without benign pulmonary disease for the control group. All 161 specimens were assayed for CEA, CYFRA 21-1, and anti-p53. The diagnostic performances of these markers were compared using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results.—The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve values of CYFRA 21-1, CEA, and anti-p53 for discriminating lung cancers from benign or healthy conditions were 0.79, 0.81, and 0.79, respectively. Area under the curve for the 3 markers in combination was 0.90. The sensitivities of those markers for lung cancer detection were respectively 39.0%, 53.7%, and 34.1% at 94.9% specificity, and the cutoff levels at those sensitivities and specificities were 4.5 ng/mL for CYFRA 21-1, 5.4 ng/mL for CEA, and 2.7 U/mL for anti-p53. We found 79.3% positive results for patients with lung cancer by any of the 3 markers, and 12.2% were positive only for anti-p53. All patients without cancer had negative results for 2 or all 3 markers. Conclusions.—Anti-p53 combined with other conventional markers is helpful in increasing the sensitivity and specificity for detecting lung cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca M. Leca ◽  
Maria Mytilinaiou ◽  
Marina Tsoli ◽  
Andreea Epure ◽  
Simon J. B. Aylwin ◽  
...  

AbstractProlactinomas represent the most common type of secretory pituitary neoplasms, with a therapeutic management that varies considerably based on tumour size and degree of hyperprolactinemia. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between serum prolactin (PRL) concentrations and prolactinoma size, and to determine a cut-off PRL value that could differentiate micro- from macro-prolactinomas. A retrospective cohort study of 114 patients diagnosed with prolactinomas between 2007 and 2017 was conducted. All patients underwent gadolinium enhanced pituitary MRI and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed. 51.8% of patients in this study were men, with a mean age at the time of diagnosis of 42.32 ± 15.04 years. 48.2% of the total cohort were found to have microadenomas. Baseline serum PRL concentrations were strongly correlated to tumour dimension (r = 0.750, p = 0.001). When performing the ROC curve analysis, the area under the curve was 0.976, indicating an excellent accuracy of the diagnostic method. For a value of 204 μg/L (4338 mU/L), sensitivity and specificity were calculated at 0.932 and 0.891, respectively. When a cut off value of 204 μg/L (4338 mU/L) was used, specificity was 93.2%, and sensitivity 89.1%, acceptable to reliably differentiate between micro- and macro- adenomas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Chiung-Yu Chen ◽  
Mei-Jui Weng ◽  
Misoso Yi-Wen Wu ◽  
Yi-Chun Liu ◽  
Wen-Che Chi

Abstract Background Pulsatility is an important property of hemodialysis arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) and can be perceived by the fingers as a gradual decrease in strength downstream from the anastomosis along the main trunk of the fistula. The distance from the point at which the pulse becomes imperceptible to the anastomosis is termed the palpable pulsatility length (PPL); we considered this length may play a role in assessing the severity of inflow stenosis for hemodialysis fistulas. Methods This study was performed by retrospective analysis of routinely collected data. Physical examinations and fistula measurements were performed in a selected population of 76 hemodialysis patients with mature fistulas during half a year. Fistula measurements included the PPL before and after treatment and the distance between the anastomosis and the arterial cannulation site (aPump length). The aPump index (API) was calculated by dividing the PPL by the aPump length. Angiograms were reviewed to determine the location and severity of stenosis. PPL and API were used to detect the critical inflow stenosis, which indicates severe inflow stenosis of an AVF. Results Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the area under the curve was 0.895 for API and 0.878 for PPL. A cutoff value of API < 1.29 and PPL < 11.0 cm were selected to detect the critical inflow stenosis. The sensitivity was 96.0% versus 80.0% and specificity was 84.31% versus 84.31% for API and PPL, respectively. Conclusions PPL and API are useful tools in defining the severity of pure inflow stenosis for mature AVFs in the hands of trained examiners with high sensitivity and specificity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Majid Nazari ◽  
Emad Babakhanzadeh ◽  
S. Mohsen Aghaei Zarch ◽  
Mehrdad Talebi ◽  
Nima Narimani ◽  
...  

Objective: In this study, specimens from testicular biopsies of men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) were used to investigate whether <i>RNF8</i> gene could serve as a biomarker to predict the presence of sperm in these patients.Methods: Testicular biopsy specimens from 47 patients were classified according to the presence of sperm (positive vs. negative groups) and investigated for the expression of <i>RNF8</i>. The level of <i>RNF8</i> gene expression in the testes was compared between these groups using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.Results: The expression level of <i>RNF8</i> was significantly higher in testicular samples from the positive group than in those from the negative group. Moreover, the area under the curve of <i>RNF8</i> expression for the entire study population was 0.84, showing the discriminatory power of <i>RNF8</i> expression in differentiating between the positive and negative groups of men with NOA. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that <i>RNF8</i> expression had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 84%, with a cutoff level of 1.76.Conclusion: This study points out a significant association between the expression of <i>RNF8</i> and the presence of sperm in NOA patients, which suggests that quantified <i>RNF8</i> expression in testicular biopsy samples may be a valuable biomarker for predicting the presence of spermatozoa in biopsy samples.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen H. Singleton ◽  
Yolande A. L. Pijnenburg ◽  
Carole H. Sudre ◽  
Colin Groot ◽  
Elena Kochova ◽  
...  

Abstract Background We previously found temporoparietal-predominant atrophy patterns in the behavioral variant of Alzheimer’s disease (bvAD), with relative sparing of frontal regions. Here, we aimed to understand the clinico-anatomical dissociation in bvAD based on alternative neuroimaging markers. Methods We retrospectively included 150 participants, including 29 bvAD, 28 “typical” amnestic-predominant AD (tAD), 28 behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), and 65 cognitively normal participants. Patients with bvAD were compared with other diagnostic groups on glucose metabolism and metabolic connectivity measured by [18F]FDG-PET, and on subcortical gray matter and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volumes measured by MRI. A receiver-operating-characteristic-analysis was performed to determine the neuroimaging measures with highest diagnostic accuracy. Results bvAD and tAD showed predominant temporoparietal hypometabolism compared to controls, and did not differ in direct contrasts. However, overlaying statistical maps from contrasts between patients and controls revealed broader frontoinsular hypometabolism in bvAD than tAD, partially overlapping with bvFTD. bvAD showed greater anterior default mode network (DMN) involvement than tAD, mimicking bvFTD, and reduced connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex with prefrontal regions. Analyses of WMH and subcortical volume showed closer resemblance of bvAD to tAD than to bvFTD, and larger amygdalar volumes in bvAD than tAD respectively. The top-3 discriminators for bvAD vs. bvFTD were FDG posterior-DMN-ratios (bvAD<bvFTD), MRI posterior-DMN-ratios (bvAD<bvFTD), MRI salience-network-ratios (bvAD>bvFTD, area under the curve [AUC] range 0.85–0.91, all p < 0.001). The top-3 for bvAD vs. tAD were amygdalar volume (bvAD>tAD), MRI anterior-DMN-ratios (bvAD<tAD), FDG anterior-DMN-ratios (bvAD<tAD, AUC range 0.71–0.84, all p < 0.05). Conclusions Subtle frontoinsular hypometabolism and anterior DMN involvement may underlie the prominent behavioral phenotype in bvAD.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 529-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surayne V Segaran ◽  
Amr M Emara ◽  
Tharani Mahesan ◽  
Joshua Silverman ◽  
Hashim U Ahmed ◽  
...  

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of the ratio of free to total prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen density to predict the presence of clinically significant prostate cancer on template biopsies. The value of these tests may be underestimated as they were previously validated against sextant transrectal biopsy of the prostate, which has been proved to miss a large proportion of significant prostate cancers. The ability of these tests to specifically detect clinically significant cancers has not previously been studied. Patients and methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of patients undergoing transperineal template biopsy who also had free to total prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen density. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis was performed to determine the comparative utility of each test in the detection of all cancers as well as clinically significant cancers, by means of the area under the curve. Results: Data from 293 patients were analysed. Prostate cancer was detected in 72% of patients, of which 62% of this group had clinically significant disease. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis demonstrated the superiority of prostate-specific antigen density and free to total prostate-specific antigen over standard prostate-specific antigen in the overall detection of cancer (area under the curve 0.662 and 0.674 vs 0.534, p=0.003 and 0.02 respectively). Both tests were even more effective in the detection of clinically significant cancers (area under the curve 0.755 and 0.715 vs 0.572, p<0.0001 and 0.009 respectively). Conclusion: The free to total prostate-specific antigen and prostate-specific antigen density both appear to perform well at detecting clinically significant prostate cancer in our population of men undergoing template biopsy. The potential role of these inexpensive tests should not be overlooked as they may be of value when deciding which patients require biopsy following an initial magnetic resonance imaging scan and also for those on surveillance protocols.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keqian Zhang ◽  
Tianqi Mao ◽  
Zhicheng He ◽  
Xiaojiao Wu ◽  
Yu Peng ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Gastric cancer (GC) represents one of the most serious cancers worldwide with the increasing mortality. Metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), a kind of lncRNAs, has been reported to be involved in the progression of cancers. This study aimed to assess serum expression pattern of MALAT1 and its clinical significance in diagnosis of GC.Methods: Serum specimens were collected from 120 GC patients and 58 healthy individuals. The expression profile of MALAT1 was examined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and its association with clinical parameters was estimated by chi-square test. The diagnostic value of MALAT1 in GC was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.Results: Upregulated expression of MALTA1 was found in GC patients compared with the healthy controls (P<0.05). The overexpression of MALAT1 was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.041) and TNM stage (P=0.005). An area under the curve (AUC) was 0.897 in ROC analysis, suggesting the high diagnostic value of MALAT1. Conclusion: The expression of MALAT1 was upregulated in GC serum samples, and its expression might serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker in patients with GC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1287-1292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida S. Svendsen ◽  
Espen Tønnesen ◽  
Leif Inge Tjelta ◽  
Stein Ørn

Purpose: To determine whether training, performance, or physiological variables at age 18 can predict which athletes become World Tour (WT) riders at senior level. Methods: Based on performance level at age 23, 80 competitive male cyclists were retrospectively categorized into 4 groups: retired (n = 21), club (n = 26), continental (n = 24), or WT (n = 9). Data collected at age 18 were analyzed to determine whether training, performance, or physiological variables differed significantly between groups. Results: At age 23, 9 riders (11%) were WT level. These riders competed significantly more at age 18 than athletes who were club level (91.5 [19.1] h vs 62.8 [21.8] h, P = .032) or retired by age 23 (61.8 [23.4] h, P = .014). WT athletes placed significantly better in national road championships at age 18 than did continental, club, and retired athletes (all P < .01). Receiver-operating-characteristic analysis showed that placing at national championships at age 18 had good accuracy in predicting whether the athlete would later reach WT level (area under the curve = 0.882). WT athletes had significantly higher maximal aerobic power at age 18 than athletes who did not reach WT level (533 [23] vs 451 [41] W and 6.9 [0.4] vs 6.2 [0.4] W/kg, P < .05). Conclusion: Already at junior level, there were performance and physiological differences distinguishing those who later became WT riders. The findings emphasize the need for high volumes of training and competition, as well as a high level of race performance already at junior level, to become a successful elite road cyclist.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document