Table 1.

Summarizes the most common genetic mutations in lung cancer and how they are commonly screened for in current clinical practice.

Genes	Common Mutations	Mutation Prevalence	Screening Protocol
EGFR [5,6]	Exon 19 deletion * Exon 20 T790M Exon 21 L858R * (*: Present in 40% of patients)	Adenocarcinoma: 38% Non-adenocarcinoma: 12% Western: 10–15% Asia: 30–40% African-American: 20% Male: 24% Female: 44%	Direct DNA sequencing is the gold standard if sample is more than 50% tumor content. If not, PCR preferred.
MET [7,8,9,10]	TPR-MET fusion Exon 14 skip c-MET-N375S	Adenosquamous carcinoma: 5% Adenocarcinoma: 3% Squamous cell carcinoma: 2% Western: 12% Asian: 1–4% African-American: 10%	FISH assay is the gold standard; next-generation sequencing is reliable only for a high-level of MET gene amplification.
ALK [11,12]	Fusion with: -TMP3-TFG-CLTCL1 -ATIC-EML4 * (*: Most common, ~30% of all ALK fusions)	Adenocarcinoma: 5% Western: 5% Asian: 5%	FISH assay is the gold stand; RT-PCR is also FDA-approved for only EML4-ALK fusion.
RET [13]	RET-KIF5B fusion * RET-CCDC6 fusion RET-NCOA4 fusion (*: Detected in EGFR inhibitor resistant cancers)	All NSCLC: 1.5% Adenocarcinoma: 1.7% Age > 60: 2.0% Age < 60: 1.0% Male: 0.9% Female: 1.7%	Next-generation sequencing and FISH assays are comparable; however, FISH demonstrated lower sensitivity for RET-NCOA4 fusions
HER2 [14]	Exon 20 12 bp insertion Exon 20 L755S Exon 20 G776C	Adenocarcinoma: 2–4%	Mutation: next-generation sequencing, Amplification: FISH, Overexpression: IHC.