Comparison of 2 monoclonal antibodies for immunohistochemical detection of BRAF V600E mutation in malignant melanoma, pulmonary carcinoma, gastrointestinal carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, and gliomas

• Published in: Human pathology Vol. 44; no. 11; pp. 2563 - 2570
• Main Authors: Routhier, Caitlin Ann, BS, Mochel, Mark C., MD, Lynch, Kerry, BS, Dias-Santagata, Dora, PhD, Louis, David N., MD, Hoang, Mai P., MD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-11-2013; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Amino Acid Substitution; Antibodies, Monoclonal - immunology; Anti–B-Raf; Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics; Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism; BRAF V600E; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Carcinoma - genetics; Carcinoma - metabolism; Carcinoma - pathology; DNA Mutational Analysis; Female; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - genetics; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - metabolism; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - pathology; Glioma; Glioma - genetics; Glioma - metabolism; Glioma - pathology; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Lung Neoplasms - genetics; Lung Neoplasms - metabolism; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Melanoma; Melanoma - genetics; Melanoma - metabolism; Melanoma - pathology; Mutant Proteins - genetics; Mutant Proteins - metabolism; Mutation; Mutation, Missense; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - metabolism; Neoplasms - pathology; Ovarian Neoplasms - genetics; Ovarian Neoplasms - metabolism; Ovarian Neoplasms - pathology; Pathology; Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf - genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf - metabolism; Sensitivity and Specificity; Skin cancer; Thyroid carcinoma; Thyroid Neoplasms - genetics; Thyroid Neoplasms - metabolism; Thyroid Neoplasms - pathology; Tumors; VE1; Immunohistochemistry; Anti–B-Raf; BRAF V600E; VE1; Glioma; Melanoma; Thyroid carcinoma
• ISSN: 0046-8177; 1532-8392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.humpath.2013.06.018

Summary BRAF mutation is seen in a variety of human neoplasms including cutaneous malignant melanoma, papillary thyroid carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma, non–small cell lung carcinoma, pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, and others. Currently, there are 2 commercially available monoclonal antibodies for the detection of BRAF V600E mutation; however, a full and practical comparison of their performance in various tumor types on an automated staining platform has not been done. We investigated their sensitivity and specificity in detecting the BRAF V600E mutation in a series of 152 tumors including 31 malignant melanomas, 25 lung carcinomas, 32 gastrointestinal carcinomas, 23 thyroid carcinomas, 35 gliomas, and 6 other malignancies. In this series, the concordance rate between immunohistochemistry (IHC) and mutational analyses was 97% (148/152) for VE1 and 88% (131/149) for anti–B-Raf. The sensitivity and specificity were 98% (60/61) and 97% (88/91) for monoclonal VE1 and 95% (58/61) and 83% (73/88) for anti–B-Raf, respectively. There were 4 cases with discordant IHC and mutational results for monoclonal VE1 in contrast to 18 cases for anti–B-Raf. Our studies showed that IHC with monoclonal VE1 has a better performance compared with anti–B-Raf in an automated staining platform and confirmed that clone VE1 provides excellent sensitivity and specificity for detecting the BRAF V600E mutation in a variety of tumor types in a clinical setting.