A novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification method for efficient and robust detection of EGFR mutations

Horiuchi, Sho; Saito, Yuichi; Matsui, Atsuka; Takahashi, Nobumasa; Ikeya, Tomohiko; Hoshi, Eishin; Shimizu, Yoshihiko; Yasuda, Masanori

Lung cancer has the highest morbidity and mortality of all malignancies in the USA in 2011 and 2013 (1, 2) . Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for 70-85% of cases and is primarily treated using systemic chemotherapy (3) . However, NSCLC treatment has evolved due to the development of therapy targeting the activation of mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (4) . EGFR activation is caused by genetic mutations, conferring susceptibility to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment, and was first reported in 2004 (5). EGFR mutations of pulmonary adenocarcinoma are present in 5-15% of the Caucasian population and 40-55% of the East Asian population (6) (7) (8) . Clinical trials have shown that patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma with an EGFR mutation exhibit clinical responses to orally administered EGFR inhibitors (5, 7, 9) . In 2016, Lin et al (4) reported that 20/137 (14.6%) patients with EGFR-mutant metastatic lung adenocarcinoma had a survival time of 5-years (4) . Therefore, detection of EGFR mutations is an important step in the treatment-decision pathway for patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma.