Assessment of ALK rearrangement in non-small cell lung cancer: using enhancing immunohistochemical way and fluorescence in situ hybridization

Besides epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement becomes another important clinical subtype. A specific and high-sensitive and economical detection way is convenience for identification of ALK positive NSCLC quickly and accurately. So the objective of our research is to detect ALK rearrangement in 172 cases of NSCLC by using enhancing immunohistochemical way (ventana-IHC, V-IHC). ALK rearrangement in 172 NSCLC samples was detected by using V-IHC, and positive staining cases were further verified by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Among 172 NSCLC cases, there were 12 positive staining. The positive results were confirmed by FISH and 11 cases were FISH positive. The overall concordance between V-IHC and FISH is 91.7% (11/12). The V-IHC method is a reliable method for ALK arrangement and could be used in clinical screen and diagnosis.