Related Experiment Video For histopathology
Updated: Jun 17, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancements in Molecular Biomarker Testing for Non-Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Published on: September 8, 2023
The utility of next-generation sequencing in distinguishing between separate primary lung carcinomas and
Shilpa S Mantri1, William D Wallace2, Jorge J Nieva3
1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Abstract:
The distinction between separate primary lung carcinomas (SPLCs) and intrapulmonary metastases (IPMs) is crucial to accurate cancer staging. Histopathology-based classification cannot always determine the relatedness of multiple tumors taken from the lung. Recently, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been used for biomarker determination, but it also has the potential to inform clonality determination among multiple tumors. Here we present a patient with three lung tumors, each diagnosed as adenocarcinoma by histopathology with a differential diagnosis of SPLC versus IPM. We pursued molecular profiling by NGS, which revealed three unique mutational patterns ruling out the possibility of clonal relatedness among the cancers. Our case supports the utility of NGS in supplementing histopathological methods to distinguish between SPLCs and IPMs and to guide treatment decisions.
