Abstract
The tissue expression of low (LMW) and high (HMW) molecular weight cytokeratins and Ber-EP4 antigen in both small (SCLC) and non-small (NSCLC) cell lung carcinomas, as well as its correlation with a variety of clinic-pathological features, was evaluated. In general, 43/52 (82.7%) of NSCLC sections showed the expression of at least one type of cytokeratin while only 7/16 (43.7%) of SCLC were stained with both LMW cytokeratin and pan-cytokeratins antibodies. Remarkably, 18/52 (34.6%) of NSCLC were positive to both types of cytokeratins. However, none of SCLC showed this pattern of expression. In NSCLC patients, the increasing levels of HMW cytokeratins expression, as shown by 34βE12 antibody, correlated with the occurrence of disease recurrence (P=0.0057; Fisher’s exact test). Consequently, the expression of HMW cytokeratins was found to be associated with a poor 4-year overall survival of NSCLC patients (P=0.0315; Log rank test), not taking into account the histopathological classification of tumors. Similar results were obtained when 8-year overall survival was assessed (P=0.0103; Log rank test). Our results could suggest the assessment of HMW cytokeratins in a larger series of NSCLC samples in order to confirm the potential prognostic value of them.
Highlights
Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer in the world and usually has a very poor prognosis [1, 2]
18/52 (34.6%) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were positive to both types of cytokeratins
CKs are the intermediate filament-forming proteins of epithelial cells, they are expressed in a tissuespecific manner in normal organs and tumors that arise from them
Summary
Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer in the world and usually has a very poor prognosis [1, 2]. NSCLC describes a histologically heterogeneous group of tumors with variable clinical behavior. Disease stage and performance status at time of diagnosis have been considered the two most noticeable prognostic factors in patients with NSCLC [5]; clinical outcomes in individual patients remain imprecise [6]. CKs are the intermediate filament-forming proteins of epithelial cells, they are expressed in a tissuespecific manner in normal organs and tumors that arise from them. Cytokeratins may be classified as low molecular weight (commonly 8, 18, and 19) and high molecular weight (commonly 1, 5, 10, and 14) [8]
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