Background and objective: it has been proven that EGFR plays an important role in cell proliferation, and has predictive values for diagnosis and prognosis. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between the expression of EGFR in tumor tissue and peripheral blood in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
Methods: the expression of EGFR was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR in 46 NSCLC tumor tissues and by ELISA in peripheral blood, compared with 10 patients with benign pulmonary diseases as control.
Results: linear correlation analysis revealed there was a correlation of the expression of EGFR protein between peripheral blood and tumor tissue (P=0.016, R2=0.83).
Conclusions: the expression of EGFR mRNA in tumor tissue was positively correlated with EGFR protein in plasma. Detection of protein in plasma may replace that in tumor tissue, providing a quicker and easier examination method for the patients lacking biopsy tissue.
背景与目的: 表皮生长因子受体（epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR）在肿瘤细胞的增殖中起重要作用，肿瘤组织中EGFR表达水平可为肺癌的诊断、预后判断提供依据。本研究通过检测EGFR在非小细胞肺癌患者肿瘤组织和外周血中的表达，探讨利用外周血中EGFR表达水平来预测肿瘤组织中的表达并作为肿瘤标记物的可行性。
方法: 应用real-time RT-PCR技术检测46例非小细胞肺癌组织和10例肺良性病变组织中EGFR mRNA的表达；应用ELISA法检测46例非小细胞肺癌患者外周血中EGFR蛋白的表达，并以10例肺良性疾病患者的外周血作对照。
结果: 直线相关分析表明EGFR在外周血中的蛋白表达水平与肿瘤组织中的mRNA表达水平具有相关性（R2=0.83, P=0.016）。
结论: 血清中EGFR蛋白水平的测定有可能替代肿瘤组织中mRNA的检测，为无法取得肿瘤组织或取到肿瘤组织困难的患者提供一种更快捷、简便的替代检测方法，尽早为临床选择治疗方法及预后判断提供依据。