Absence of activating mutations in the transmembrane domain of the c-erbB-2 protooncogene in human lung cancer.

The rat neu gene is known to be activated by a point mutation in its predicted transmembrane domain. Overexpression of the human homologue of neu, the c-erbB-2 gene, in human lung cancer has been reported, and a similar activating point mutation has been suggested. Therefore, we tested for possible aberrations of the c-erbB-2 gene in the region of the transmembrane domain in surgical specimens of human primary lung cancer from 190 patients, and also examined 24 metastases and 26 specimens of noncancerous portions of the lung of the same patients. Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis of polymerase chain reaction products revealed no point mutations in the target domain in any of these specimens.