Abstract
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal tumor. It is often hard to discriminate MPM from metastatic tumors of other types because currently, there are no reliable immunopathological markers for MPM. MPM is differentially diagnosed by some immunohistochemical tests on pathology specimens. In the present study, we investigated the expression of intelectin-1, a new mesothelioma marker, in normal tissues in the whole body and in many cancers, including MPM, by immunohistochemical analysis. We found that in normal tissues, human intelectin-1 was mainly secreted from gastrointestinal goblet cells along with mucus into the intestinal lumen, and it was also expressed, to a lesser extent, in mesothelial cells and urinary epithelial cells. Eighty-eight percent of epithelioid-type MPMs expressed intelectin-1, whereas sarcomatoid-type MPMs, biphasic MPMs, and poorly differentiated MPMs were rarely positive for intelectin-1. Intelectin-1 was not expressed in other cancers, except in mucus-producing adenocarcinoma. These results suggest that intelectin-1 is a better marker for epithelioid-type MPM than other mesothelioma markers because of its specificity and the simplicity of pathological assessment. Pleural intelectin-1 could be a useful diagnostic marker for MPM with applications in histopathological identification of MPM.
Highlights
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal tumor
Intelectin-1 Expression in Normal Tissues Intelectin-1 expression in normal tissues was investigated by immunohistochemical analysis using an anti-intelectin-1 monoclonal antibody
Utility of Intelectin-1 Staining in Differential Diagnosis of MPM
Summary
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal tumor. The median survival of patients with MPM after chemotherapy or radical surgery is only 9–12 months [1]. It is often difficult to diagnose MPM and to distinguish it from metastatic carcinomas because a sensitive and reliable diagnostic marker for MPM has not been found yet. The differential diagnosis of MPM depends on some immunohistochemical tests of surgical pathology specimens. Calretinin, cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6), mesothelin, Wilm’s tumor gene product 1 (WT-1), and podoplanin, often referred to as D2-40, have been reported as immunohistochemical markers for epithelioid-type MPM [5,6,7]. We reported that a large amount of intelectin-1 is secreted into the malignant pleural fluid from epithelioid-type MPMs [8]
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