Tissus pulmonaires : qualité, préparation des prélèvements, et recherche d'altérations moléculaires : le point de vue du pathologiste et du biologiste moléculaire

Several tyrosine kinase inhibitors demonstrated efficacy in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These molecules can be used to treat patients presenting in their tumor an activating mutation of the EGFR gene (erlotinib and gefitinib) or an ALK translocation (crizotinib). Many other molecules have shown promising results in clinical trials, and additional molecular tests will probably be required in the future. Specimens from these patients are usually limited in size. They must be used to perform the histology diagnostic and the molecular characterization. Therefore, the use of these samples must be very cautious in pathology departments. Molecular tests must also be optimized in order to reach quality. These goals require a multi-disciplinary approach.