Detection of ALK protein expression in lung squamous cell carcinomas by immunohistochemistry

BACKGROUND: The echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) gene and the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements occur in approximately 5% of lung adenocarcimomas (ACA), leading to ALK overexpression and predicting response to targeted therapy. To the present, few studies have been focused on the expression of ALK protein in lung squamous cell carcinomas (SqCC). Only several cases of lung SqCC were reported expression of ALK protein. No clinical study has been published to explicit the relationship between ALK expression and the response to targeted therapy in SqCC. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed ALK protein expression with a specific rabbit monoclonal Ig antibody (D5F3 clone) in 207 cases of lung SqCC. The positive cases were confirmed with ALK fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and RT-PCR. RESULTS: We found that 3 out of 207 (1.4%) cases of lung SqCC were ALK positive detected by IHC staining, which were confirmed by ALK FISH and RT-PCR. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that ALK protein expression is not a rare molecular event in SqCC. Although the frequency of EML4-ALK rearrangements is lower in lung SqCC than that in lung adenocarcinomas, their presence may provide additional treatment options in lung SqCC. The response of SqCC patients with ALK expression to target therapy of crizotinib should be explored. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13046-014-0109-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.