A comparative study of EGFR oncogenic mutations in matching tissue and plasma samples from patients with advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma

Background: Plasma based EGFR mutation analysis is emerging as a viable alternative to tumour tissue genotyping for patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of concordance between EGFR genotypes derived from matching tissue and blood samples.

Methods: EGFR activating mutations L858R, exon 19 deletions, G719A/C/S and L861Q as well as resistance mutations T790M and exon 20 insertions were co-analysed in 61 matching tissue and blood biopsies collected from NCSLC patients. Tissue and plasma genotyping was performed by amplification refractory mutation system PCR (ARMS-PCR) and circulating single molecule amplification and re-sequencing technology (cSMART), respectively.

Results: Of the 61 paired samples, 44 (72.1%) were fully concordant, 2 (3.3%) were partially concordant and 15 (24.6%) were discordant for EGFR genotypes. The discordance was bidirectional with tissue and plasma failing to reveal the equivalent mutation in eight and nine cases, respectively. Benchmarking against ARMS-PCR tissue biopsy results as the gold standard, the sensitivity and concordance rates for plasma mutation detection by cSMART assay were 72.7% and 90.2% (L858R), 72.7% and 86.9% (exon 19 deletions) and 100% and 98.4% (T790M).

Conclusions: The cSMART assay was highly reliable and accurate for plasma EGFR genotyping. Based on discordance trends, tumour heterogeneity was suspected to be the major factor preventing a concordant diagnosis in matching samples.