Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (Sep 2018)

ALK (D5F3) CDx: an immunohistochemistry assay to identify ALK-positive NSCLC patients

  • Uruga H,
  • Mino-Kenudson M

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 11
pp. 147 – 155

Abstract

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Hironori Uruga,1 Mari Mino-Kenudson2 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Respiratory Center, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; 2Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Abstract: Screening for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements is a very important process in treatment decision making for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) is considered the universally accepted reference standard, it is associated with technical difficulties and high costs that have made global implementation of this assay challenging. Conversely, ALK immunohistochemistry has shown high sensitivity and specificity compared to FISH and other molecular assays and is more cost-effective. In fact, the ALK (D5F3) CDx immunohistochemistry assay was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a standalone test for ALK rearrangements in lung cancer in 2015. In this review, we will discuss the overview of ALK rearrangements in NSCLC, various testing methods for ALK rearrangements, and the details of immunohistochemistry for ALK, in particular one with the ALK antibody clone D5F3. Keywords: anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene ALK, D5F3 antibody, ALK (D5F3) CDx, non-small-cell lung cancer, adenocarcinoma

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