[Detection of epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutation in non-small cell lung cancer by allele-specific oligonucleotide-PCR and bi-loop probe specific primer quantitative PCR].

Objective: To compare the detection sensitivity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations between allele specific oligonucleotide PCR (ASO-PCR) and bi-loop probe and specific primer quantitative PCR (BPSP-qPCR).

Methods: A total of 96 non-small cell lung cancer specimens were selected from West China Hospital from September 2009 to December 2010. ASO-PCR was developed to detect the presence of classical EGFR mutations. A total 39 available specimens were also tested by BPSP-qPCR.

Results: EGFR mutation detection rate was 30.2% (26/96) by ASO-PCR. The mutation rate was higher in female than in male patients [45.5% (20/44) vs. 17.3% (9/52), P = 0.003], non-smokers than smokers [44.1% (26/59) vs. 8.1% (3/37), P < 0.001] and adenocarcinomas than other subtypes of lung cancer [37.0% (27/73) vs. 8.7% (2/23), P = 0.01]. Among mutation negative cases by ASO-PCR, BPSP-qPCR increased the rate of detection of 19-del and L858R mutation by 10.3% (4/39) in adenocarcinomas and non-smoking subset. Overall, the mutation detection rate of BPSP-qPCR was higher than that of ASO-PCR [66.7% (26/39) vs. 41.0% (16/39), P = 0.02].

Conclusion: BPSP-qPCR has a better detection sensitivity than that of ASO-PCR.