Establishment of a Flow Cytometry Protocol for Binarily Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells with EGFR Mutation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) respond well to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but current EGFR mutation profiling relies on invasive tumor biopsies. Developing less invasive approaches, particularly proteomic evaluation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for EGFR mutation profiling, remains crucial.

Methods

A flow cytometry method for detecting EGFR^L858R-bearing CTCs was established by spiking NCI-H1975 cells into blood from cancer-naive donors. The method was then applied to blood samples from 21 NSCLC patients and 10 cancer-naive donors.

Results

The gating strategy was defined by CD45^-CK-7/8⁺CK-14/15/16/19^-EpCAM⁺vimentin⁺EGFR^L858R, with a cu

SUBMITTER: Chang CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12731806 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature