PNA-mediated Real-Time PCR Clamping for Detection of EGFR Mutations

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are currently used in the treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer. Recent studies on non-small cell lung cancer have shown that some patients carry somatic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. Such mutations correlate with the effectiveness of certain TKIs. To detect a small amount of mutant EGFR among an abundance of wild-type EGFR, we have developed a highly sensitive and simple method using PNA-mediated real-time PCR clamping. The PNA-mediated real-time PCR clamping enables detection of EGFR mutants down to approximately 1% mutant -to- wild type. The total assay time was short as it required only 2.0 hr. Thus, PNA-mediated real-time PCR clamping can easily be applied to clinical samples for identification of DNA carrying EGFR mutations and also appear to be the best assay to detect somatic mutations.