A proposal for cellularity assessment for EGFR mutational analysis with a correlation with DNA yield and evaluation of the number of sections obtained from cell blocks for immunohistochemistry in non-small cell lung carcinoma.
AIMS
Different approaches have been described for reporting specimen adequacy for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation analysis. We aimed: (1) to conduct cellularity assessment and to investigate its association with DNA yield, (2) to compare the H&E slides taken before and after the thick sections (curls) obtained for EGFR testing and (3) to evaluate the number of ancillary studies performed.


METHODS
Cell block (CB) slides of 110 non-small cell lung carcinoma cases submitted to EGFR analysis from 2010 to 2012 were reviewed for total cellularity (ranges 1-100, 100-250, 250-500, 500-750, 750-1000 and >1000 cells), tumour cellularity (ranges 1-50, 50-100, 100-300 and >300 cells) and the percentage of tumour cells. Precurl and postcurl H&E slides were compared using the three criteria. The number of immunohistochemistry (IHC) markers and special stains and DNA yield were recorded.


RESULTS
DNA yield was significantly associated with the total cellularity, number and percentage of tumour cells. For 46 cases with precurl and postcurl slides, only three (6.5%) were classified as being different and in two of them the postcurl slide had greater cellularity than the precurl. IHC was performed in 83 cases, with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 11 markers (median of 3) per case.


CONCLUSIONS
An association between the total cellularity and the tumour cellularity with the DNA yield was demonstrated using the ranges described. Evaluation of a postcurl slide is an unnecessary practice. The majority of the CB had sufficient material for ancillary studies (up to 11 markers) and mutation testing.
['da Cunha Santos|Gilda|G|', 'Wyeth|Tyler|T|', 'Reid|Allie|A|', 'Saieg|Mauro Ajaj|MA|', 'Pitcher|Bethany|B|', 'Pintilie|Melania|M|', 'Kamel-Reid|Suzanne|S|', 'Tsao|Ming Sound|MS|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis D066246:ErbB Receptors D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007150:Immunohistochemistry D008175:Lung Neoplasms D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009154:Mutation
EGFR CELL COUNTING CYTOLOGY CYTOPATHOLOGY LUNG CANCER