Correlation between epidermal growth factor receptor mutation and histologic subtypes or characteristics of computed tomography findings in patients with resected pulmonary adenocarcinoma

To investigate the correlation between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and the histologic subtypes features or computed tomography (CT) findings in patients with resected pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

We retrospectively reviewed 153 patients underwent surgical resected pulmonary adenocarcinoma. EGFR mutations were detected using the amplification refractory mutation system. Histologic subtype was classified according to the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society pulmonary adenocarcinoma classification. Characteristics of CT in the tumor were retrospectively analyzed, and compared to mutation-negative cohort.

EGFR mutations were found in 67 (43.79%) cases. The prevalent histologic subtypes of invasive adenocarcinoma were acinar predominant adenocarcinoma (33.99%), papillary predominant adenocarcinoma (24.18%), micropapillary predominant adenocarcinoma (MPA; 18.95%), solid predominant adenocarcinoma (11.76%), and lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma (LPA; 11.11%). EGFR mutations were correlated with the MPA and LPA subtypes (P = 0.009 and P = 0.018) and was correlated with the air bronchograms (P = 0.008). EGFR mutations were independently associated with other CT characteristics including ground-glass opacity/tumor ratio (P = 0.054).

Correlation exists between EGFR mutations and histologic subtypes of invasive adenocarcinoma or air bronchograms on CT images, which could use to predict EGFR mutation status in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma.