High efficiency for activated KRAS detection from peripheral blood using weighted enzymatic gene chip array method

The KRAS mutation test is recommended that it may determine which patients with advanced colorectal or lung cancer are eligible for antiEGFR targeted therapies. Traditional molecular techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined direct sequencing are limited by the difficulty of obtaining patients’ cancer tissues for analysis. Finding an alternative method to detect KRAS gene mutation is important. This study aims to estimate the efficiency of Activating KRAS Detection Chip using a weighted enzymatic chip array (WEnCA) platform, which was successfully established in our previous study, in detecting activated KRAS mutations from the peripheral blood of cancer patients. The paired tumor tissue and peripheral blood specimens were collected from 377 patients with colorectal or non-small cell lung cancer. DNA were extracted from tissue samples and applied to detect KRAS mutation using direct sequencing. RNA were extracted from peripheral blood samples and applied to detect the activated KRAS mutation using WEnCA. Results showed 122 tumor specimens with KRAS mutation, of which 112 were positive through WEnCA. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of WEnCA analysis for detecting activated KRAS mutation in peripheral blood were 91.8%, 94.5% and 93.6%, respectively. This study demonstrated that WEnCA is a sensitive, easier interpretation, and a convenient technique for detecting the circulating KRAS mutant from the peripheral blood of cancer patients.