Personalized medicine for lung cancer using molecular-targeted drugs is now common, but there have been few prospective validation studies about the usefulness of lung cancer gene panel testing using cytology samples.
In research presented Sunday at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) meeting in Vienna, a team led by Dr. Kei Morikawa of St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan, has found that gene analysis using cytological specimens had a high success rate and that the yield and quality of extracted nucleic acid were adequate for panel analysis.
The specimens were taken from transbronchial brushing, transbronchial needle aspiration, and pleural effusion procedures performed between May 2020 and January 2022. Nucleic acid extraction and analysis were successful in 100% of cases included in the research.
