Method of identifying treatment responsive non-small cell lung cancer using anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) as a marker

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10620207-B2
Application number	US-201715475668-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2017
Priority date	Sep 24, 2012
Publication date	Apr 14, 2020
Grant date	Apr 14, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods for identifying a subject as having NSCLC that is predicted or is likely to respond to treatment with an ALK inhibitor, for example crizotinib. The methods include identifying a sample including NSCLC tumor cells as ALK-positive or ALK-negative using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and scoring methods disclosed herein. A subject is identified as having NSCLC likely to respond to treatment with an ALK inhibitor if the sample is identified as ALK-positive and is identified as having NSCLC not likely to respond to treatment with an ALK inhibitor if the sample is identified as ALK-negative. According to certain embodiments of the methods, subjects predicted to respond to an ALK inhibitor may then be treated with an ALK inhibitor such as crizotinib.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of identifying a subject as having non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) likely to respond to treatment with an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, comprising:
(a) contacting a sample comprising NSCLC tumor cells from the subject with a rabbit anti-ALK D5F3 antibody;
(b) detecting ALK protein expression in the sample, comprising:
(i) contacting the sample with a 3-hydroxyquinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid-conjugated secondary antibody which binds to the anti-ALK antibody;
(ii) contacting the sample with a horseradish peroxidase-conjugated tertiary antibody which binds to the 3-hydroxyquinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid;
(iii) contacting the sample with hydrogen peroxide and tyramide conjugated 3-hydroxyquinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid under conditions sufficient for deposition of the 3-hydroxyquinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid at or near the ALK protein;
(iv) contacting the sample with the tertiary antibody which binds to the 3-hydroxyquinoxaline-2-carboxylic acid;
(v) contacting the sample with hydrogen peroxide and 3,3′-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride; and
(vi) detecting the DAB precipitate utilizing light microscopy;

(c) scoring the sample as positive or negative for ALK, comprising:
(i) scoring the sample as positive for ALK if strong granular cytoplasmic staining is present in one or more tumor cells in the sample; or
(ii) scoring the sample as negative for ALK if strong granular cytoplasmic staining is not present in one or more tumor cells in the sample; and

(d) identifying the subject as having NSCLC likely to respond to treatment with the ALK inhibitor if the sample is scored as positive for ALK or identifying the subject as having NSCLC not likely to respond to treatment with the ALK inhibitor if the sample is scored as negative for ALK.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sample comprising NSCLC tumor cells is a fixed sample comprising a tissue biopsy, fine needle aspirate, bronchoalveolar lavage, pleural fluid, or sputum.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the tissue biopsy comprises a tissue section.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the fixed sample is a formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue section.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the fixed sample is fixed for at least about 6 hours in neutral-buffered formalin or zinc formalin within about 6 hours of the sample collection.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the anti-ALK monoclonal antibody is a rabbit anti-ALK D5F3 antibody.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein detecting strong granular cytoplasmic staining of ALK protein comprises indirect detection of binding of the anti-ALK monoclonal antibody to the sample.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein detecting strong granular cytoplasmic staining of ALK protein comprises visual inspection utilizing light microscopy.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein strong granular cytoplasmic staining of ALK protein comprises visual inspection utilizing light microscopy comprises visual inspection of at least one field of view.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the subject for treatment with the ALK inhibitor if the sample from the subject is scored as positive for ALK.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of the ALK inhibitor to the selected subject.

Assignees

• Ventana Med Syst Inc

Inventors

• Grogan Thomas
• Nitta Hiro
• Barnes Michael
• Towne Penny
• Singh Shalini
• Clements June F
• Schemp Crystal
• Roberts Esteban

Classifications

• G01N2800/52

  Predicting or monitoring the response to treatment, e.g. for selection of therapy based on assay results in personalised medicine; Prognosis · CPC title

• A61K31/4545

  containing a six-membered ring with nitrogen as a ring hetero atom, e.g. pipamperone, anabasine · CPC title

• G01N2333/912

  transferring phosphorus containing groups, e.g. kinases (2.7) · CPC title

• G01N33/57423 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01N33/5752 Primary

  of the lungs · CPC title