In an attempt to better understand the
biologic behavior of neoplastic cell
metastasis, a histochemical study with the use of six different
lectins and a
monoclonal antibody against human
pulmonary surfactant apoprotein (PE-10) was carried out on primary
adenocarcinomas of the lungs and their regional (usually lymphatic to lymph nodes or contralateral lung) and distant (usually hematogenous to extrathoracic organs) metastatic lesions of 54 postmortem cases. Primary pulmonary
adenocarcinomas were classified further into acinar, papillary, and solid types according to WHO histological typing. Acinar type primary
adenocarcinoma of the lungs showed significantly higher (p less than 0.05) binding reactions to Ricinus communis-I (RCA-I) and Ulex europaeus-I (UEA-I)
lectins than solid type
adenocarcinoma. With six different
lectins, concordantly positive reactions between primary pulmonary
adenocarcinomas and their lymphatic and hematogenous
metastases were seen in 67% or more cases, and with
soybean agglutinin (SBA) and UEA-I the concordance rates between primary and
lymphatic metastases (lymph nodes and contralateral lungs, respectively) were significantly higher (p less than 0.05) than those between primary and hematogenous
metastases. With PE-10 immunohistochemistry, concordantly positive reactions between primary and
metastases were low, especially in cases of distant hematogenous
metastases (25%), but the statistical significance of differences was missed by narrow margins. With
alcian blue PAS-
stain, concordantly positive reactions of
mucin production between primary
adenocarcinomas and both lymphatic and hematogenous
metastases were high (92%), but there was no evidence of correlation between
lectin bindings and
alcian blue-PAS reactions to either primary or metastatic lesions of pulmonary
adenocarcinomas.