Targeted Therapy Management in NSCLC Patients Using Cytology: Experience from a Tertiary Care Cancer Center

Although biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis, cytological material has often been used to assist in making a pathologic diagnosis as well as for molecular testing in certain cancers such as in the lung, cervix, and head/neck.

Our objective is to share experience from our institution in the use of cytological material in screening for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in a subset of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Fine needle aspirates, pleural effusion, cell blocks of 223 NSCLC patients, where cytology suggested malignancy were screened for EGFR mutation in exons 18-21 using Scorpion(®) ARMS real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology.

Overall, EGFR mutation was seen in 43.5 % of study samples. Deletions were highest in exon 19 (27.2 %), followed by exon 21 (15.5 %), exon 18 (5.3 %), and exon 20 (1.9 %). Chi-squared analysis revealed a significant correlation for mutation status in women compared with men (χ (2) = 5.88, p = 0.02), with exon 19 mutation predominating (χ (2) = 5.66, p = 0.02).

Our results demonstrate the successful use of cytology material for molecular testing in a subset of NSCLC patients to direct their treatment.