Detection of molecular abnormalities could provide an essential tool for the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and defining patients at risk for early relapse. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) targeting 17 gene loci was applied to determine the frequency of molecular alteration in NSCLC probes and adjacent tumour-free bronchial epithelium. FISH was performed on fresh frozen specimens from 76 patients with histologically confirmed NSCLC and 54 specimens of adjacent tumour-free tissue. Routine autopsy lung tissue probes from 7 cancer-free patients served as a control group. Locus-specific (3p14.2, 3p21.2, 3p21.3, 3p25.3, 5p15.2, 7p12, 8q24.12, 9p21, 13q14, and 17p13.1) as well as centromere probes (4, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 16) were used. Molecular alterations using FISH on interphase nuclei were detected in 100% of NSCLC tumour specimens and 89% of microscopically tumour-free tissues of NSCLC patients. In histologically ‘normal’ epithelium, the most frequent alterations were seen with locus-specific probes for 3p14.2, 3p.21, 3p21.3, 3p25.3 and 7p12 and centromere-specific probes 11 and 16 (12-93%). As expected, the majority of genetic alterations seen in ‘premalignant’ specimens were found in the correlating tumour probes. None of the tested parameters revealed prognostic significance in univariate Cox analysis. FISH analysis, performing multicolour strategies, demonstrated its power in detecting genetic abnormalities in NSCLC specimens and even in tumour-free sections of tumour patients.

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