Correlation among genetic variations of c-MET in Chinese patients with non-small cell lung cancer

The purpose of our research was to determine the correlation of amplification, protein expression and somatic mutation of c-MET in IIIb-IV stage NSCLC (Non-small cell lung cancer). We also explored correlation of c-MET variation with clinical outcome.

c-MET expression was observed in 28.6% (56/196) cases, and among those 13.8% (27/196) were shown to be FISH positive. Only 2.67% patients in this study carried the c-MET mutation. Cases with c-MET FISH positive were all IHC positive ,but in IHC positive cases, only half were FISH positive. Among patients with IHC²⁺ staining, 35.5% was FISH positive, while cases with IHC³⁺ staining,64% was FISH positive. Both protein expression and copy number of c-MET did not significantly correlate with clinical prognosis in these patients treated with EGFR-TKIs.

IHC could be used as a preliminary screening method for c-MET copy number amplification and should be confirmed by FISH only in IHC positive case which facilitate selection of ALK or MET inhibitor therapy.

c-MET gene copy number, protein expression and somatic mutation for exon 14 were detected by fluorescent- In-Situ-Hybridization (FISH), Immunohistochemistry (IHC), and Denaturing-High-Performance-Liquid-Chromatography (DHPLC), respectively, in 196 NSCLC patients. The relationship between c-MET abnormalities and clinical outcome of targeted therapy was analyzed by McNemar's test.