EGFRvIII mRNA detection in the serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

摘要

To the Editor: The type III EGFR variant (EGFRvIII) is the most common mutant of EGFR. It was first identified in primary human glioblastomas and has an in-frame deletion of 801 base pairs (amino acids 6-273) in the extracellular domain. EGFRvIII is frequently expressed in different neoplastic diseases: gliomas, medul-lablastomas, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian carcinoma, but not in normal tissue (1). Recently, EGFRvIII has also been found to be expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and tissues and plays a pivotal role in tumorigenicity, chemical resistance and the progression and recurrence of HCC (2, 3).