Investigation of transrenal KRAS mutation in late stage NSCLC patients correlates to disease progression

AbstractPurpose: Using transrenal DNA to detect KRAS mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the study addressed the clinical impact for longitudinal monitoring and prognostic value for disease outcome.Methods: Digital droplet PCR was used to detect the mutant DNA. A total of 200 NSCLC patients were recruited with varying molecular profiles. To ascertain the specificity of transrenal DNA to accurately profile the disease, primary tissues were compared. Subsequently, serial samplings were performed at different treatment cycles to gauge the predictive value.Results: Transrenal DNA was successfully detected in all 200 patients. Overall concordance rate for mutant KRAS DNA within urine specimens and primary tissue biopsies was 95% (k = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.82–0.95). Patients with positive results at baseline had lower median overall survival (OS) than the wildtype group. More importantly, longitudinal monitoring of urine specimens showed an increase in the quantity of transrenal DNA, which were highly as...