Neural cell adhesion molecule and prognosis of surgically resected lung cancer.

Abstract

The prognostic significance of the expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), a neuroendocrine antigen in lung cancer, was analyzed by an indirect immunoperoxidase method in 97 surgically treated patients. Reactivity of MOC-1 and S-L 11.14, both cluster-1 monoclonal antibodies directed against NCAM, was positive in all nine small-cell lung cancers and in 16 of 88 (18%) non-small-cell lung cancers. For the latter group, this expression demonstrated a phenotypic heterogeneity that was mainly observed in poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinomas and in stage N2 non-small-cell lung cancers. Patients with NCAM-positive non-small-cell lung cancer proved to have a shorter survival than those with NCAM-negative disease. In Cox's model for multivariate analysis, nodal status and histology were the main independent determinants of prognosis. We therefore concluded that NCAM expression in non-small-cell lung cancer is correlated to nodal status and that it indicates a poor prognosis. These findings confirm that the diversification of lung cancer phenotype leads to tumor progression and brings a negative prognosis to surgically resected non-small-cell lung cancer. However, nodal status remains the most important prognostic variable, suggesting that NCAM expression is only one of numerous biological events that promote tumor progression.

• Authors: J L Pujol, J Simony, P Demoly, R Charpentier, J C Laurent, J P Daurès, M Lehmann, V Guyot, P Godard, F B Michel
• Journal: The American review of respiratory disease (Am Rev Respir Dis) Vol. 148 Issue 4 Pt 1 Pg. 1071-5 (Oct 1993) ISSN: 0003-0805 [Print] United States
• PMID: 8214927 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal

Topics

• Adenocarcinoma (metabolism, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Carcinoma, Large Cell (metabolism, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Carcinoma, Small Cell (metabolism, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Carcinoma, Squamous Cell (metabolism, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal (metabolism)
• Female
• France (epidemiology)
• Humans
• Immunoenzyme Techniques
• Immunohistochemistry
• Lung Neoplasms (metabolism, mortality, pathology, surgery)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Staging
• Phenotype
• Prognosis
• Proportional Hazards Models
• Prospective Studies