Lewis Y antigen expression and postoperative survival in non–small cell lung cancer

doi:10.1016/S0003-4975(98)00937-0

The Annals of Thoracic Surgery

Volume 66, Issue 5, November 1998, Pages 1745-1750

Presented at the Poster session of the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, New Orleans, LA, Jan 26–28, 1998.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-4975(98)00937-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

Background. In contrast to other Lewis blood group-related antigens, Lewis Y antigen (Le^Y) has not been fully investigated in non–small cell lung cancer.

Methods. To assess the significance of Le^Y expression, 236 patients with completely resected pathologic stage 1-3a were reviewed with immunohistochemical analysis.

Results. Le^Y expression was positive in 179 patients (75.8%). In poorly differentiated cancer, percentage of Le^Y-positive patients was lower than in moderately to well-differentiated cancer (67.2% versus 81.2%, p = 0.028). Five-year survival rate of Le^Y-positive patients was 78.2%, significantly higher than that of Le^Y-negative patients (59.7%, p = 0.001). Combined with p53 status, differences in survival proved to be marked; 5-year survival rate of patients with positive Le^Y expression and without aberrant p53 expression, was as high as 83.3%, whereas that of patients with negative Le^Y expression and with aberrant p53 expression was only 38.4% (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed that Le^Y expression was a significant independent factor to predict better survival.

Conclusions. Le^Y expression is a significant prognostic factor related to grade of cancer differentiation.

Section snippets

Material and methods

A total of 237 consecutive patients with pathologic stage 1–3a NSCLC who underwent complete tumor resection and mediastinal lymph node dissection without chemotherapy nor radiation therapy before operation at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Chest Disease Research Institute, Kyoto University between January 1, 1985 and December 31, 1990, were reviewed. Complete tumor resection was defined when no microscopic cancers were identified either in the resection margins of the tumor or in the

Expression of Le^Y

The number of patients for whom the grade of Le^Y expression was judged (−), (+), (2+), (3+), (4+), or (5+) was 57 (24.2%), 17 (7.2%), 42 (17.8%), 51 (21.6%), 31 (13.1%), and 38 (16.1%), respectively. The 5-year survival rates were 50.2% for (−) group, 79.3% for (1+) group, 80.0% for (2+) group, 74.4% for (3+) group, 76.0% for (4+) group, and 77.6% for (5+) group. The Le^Y expression (−) group showed significantly worse postoperative prognosis than the other (+), (2+), (3+), (4+), and (5+)

Discussion

During neoplastic transformation, glycosylation may revert to an earlier development form with lung cancer cells reexpressing antigens found on immature embryonic lung cells. The tumor-associated Le^Y is the focus of the present study and is correlated with postoperative survival.

Several findings have been reported with respect to Le^Y expression in normal tissue and in cancer tissue since the 1980s, when various kinds of MoAbs against Le^Y were generated. As for Le^Y expression in lung cancer,

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Nobuyuki Hamajima, Division of Epidemiology, Aichi Cancer Institute, Aichi, Japan, for his helpful comment and critical reading of the statistical section of the manuscript.

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Original ArticlesLewis Y antigen expression and postoperative survival in non–small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Section snippets

Material and methods

Expression of LeY

Discussion

Acknowledgements

J Biol Chem

Ann Thorac Surg

J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg

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Cancer Res

Increased expression of sialyl-dimeric Lex antigen in liver metastasis of human colorectal carcinoma

Cancer Res

Increased expression of sialyl Lewisx antigen correlates with poor survival in patients with colorectal carcinomaclinicopathological immunohistochemical study

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Original Articles
Lewis Y antigen expression and postoperative survival in non–small cell lung cancer

Expression of Le^Y

Expression of Lewis^a, Lewis^b, X, and Y blood group antigens in human colonic tumors and normal tissue and in human tumor-derived cell lines

Association of sialyl-Lewis^a and sialyl-Lewis^x with MUC-1 apomucin in a pancreatic cancer cell lines

Lewis^x- and sialyl Lewis^x-related antigen expression in human malignant and nonmalignant colonic tissues

Increased expression of sialyl-dimeric Le^x antigen in liver metastasis of human colorectal carcinoma

Increased expression of sialyl Lewis^x antigen correlates with poor survival in patients with colorectal carcinomaclinicopathological immunohistochemical study

Differential expression of difucosyl type 2 chain (Le^y) defined by monoclonal antibody AH6 in different locations of colonic epithelia, various histological types of colonic polyps and adenocarcinomas