Dr. Kris Discusses Driver Mutations Test False Negatives

Lead author Mark G. Kris, MD, chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the false negative rate discovered in the multicenter study focusing on the identification of driver mutations in tumor specimens in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. The study tested patients for KRAS, EGFR, HER2, BRAF, PIK3CA, AKT1, MEK1, and NRAS mutations using standard multiplexed assays and FISH for EML4-ALK rearrangements and MET amplifications.

Kris explains that a bad tissue sample is commonly the cause of false negatives and that measures are being, or are already, in place to assure the biopsy is not from the support structure and from the actual tumor cells. He reassures that false positives are extremely rare and if a test returns positive you can be certain it is accurate.