Expression of blood-group antigen A - a favorable prognostic factor in non-small-cell lung cancer

Article Abstract:

Some cancer patients respond better to treatment than other patients with apparently identical stages and grades of tumors. Until the advent of some modern laboratory technologies, however, it has not been practical to attempt to identify the differences which might distinguish one patient from another. Today the search for prognostic factors is an important part of cancer research. Reliable prognostic indicators may have direct clinical relevance, since patients with especially poor prognosis might be given more aggressive treatment from the outset, while patients with especially good prognosis might be spared some of the side effects of the more aggressive approaches. Researchers examining prognostic factors in cases of non-small-cell lung cancer have found that the presence or absence of a particular blood group antigen on tumor cells is an important predictor of survival. While the A antigen is usually thought of in the context blood transfusions, the antigen is present in other tissues besides the red blood cells of people with type A or type AB blood. In a study of 164 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, 61 patients were found to have type A blood and 10 had type AB. Of these, 43 were found to have the A antigen on their tumor cells as well; the remainder had tumors which were missing the A antigen. The patients with tumors lacking the A antigen had a median survival of 15 months, in contrast to a 71-month survival for patients with the A antigen on their tumor cells. The absence of the A antigen itself is not sufficient to account for this short survival, since patients with blood types B and O, who cannot make the A antigen anywhere in their bodies, had a median survival which, at 39 months, was significantly longer than the median survival for the type A patients who lacked the A antigen on their cancer cells. The researchers performed a Cox proportional hazards analysis and confirmed that the predictive value of the presence of the A antigen is independent of the other known prognostic variables for lung cancer. The authors conclude that the presence of the A antigen on non-small-cell lung cancer cells is a favorable prognostic indicator, and that this factor should be taken into account in the design of future clinical trials. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Health aspects, Blood groups, ABO blood-group system, Blood group antigens

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Flow cytometric analysis of the DNA content of non-small cell lung cancer: ploidy as a significant prognostic indicator in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung

Article Abstract:

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents a heterogeneous group of tumors with differing responses to treatment techniques. One factor which has been shown in many other tumor types to be a predictor of prognosis is the DNA content of the tumor cells, although prognostic value has not been found for all tumor types. Cancers that have a DNA content consistent with a normal, or diploid, chromosome complement generally have a more moderate course than those with an abnormal, or aneuploid, set of chromosomes. To determine if similar considerations apply to NSCLC, 146 cases of NSCLC were examined using flow cytometry. Unlike image cytometry, in which a stained microscopic section is analyzed, flow cytometry requires that tissue be enzymatically broken up into individual cells or nuclei, which may then be automatically dropped past the cytometer's sensors. An average of 10,000 cells was evaluated for each of 146 tissue specimens. The DNA profile of the cells was interpreted in terms of its ploidy, or chromosome content, and this information was correlated not only with outcome, but with other tumor variables such as stage, differentiation, and rate of cell division. Analysis showed that among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, those with diploid cancers had a five-year survival rate of 70 percent, which was significantly higher than the 26 percent rate of patients with aneuploid tumors. Furthermore, the ploidy of the tumor did not correlate with other tumor factors, indicating that the flow cytometric measurement added new, independent information to the list of tumor features. The value of ploidy as a predictive factor did not hold if the other non-small cell lung cancers were considered together with the squamous cell carcinomas. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Research, Measurement, Squamous cell carcinoma, Cytodiagnosis, Ploidy

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Lung carcinoma with metastasis to testicular seminoma

Article Abstract:

The metastases or spreading of cancer cells from one tumor site to another is rare. The most common "donor" tumor, or tumor that releases cancer cells, originates in the lung, whereas the most common "recipient" tumor, or tumor that accepts the spreading cancer cells is in the kidney. A case is described of a 53-year-old man with a lung tumor that metastasized to a testicular seminoma, a tumor of the testis. This case is the first description of a tumor-to-tumor metastases, in which the recipient tumor is a testicular seminoma. Tests for immune factors and the protein mucin were performed in this case and 10 other cases of germ cell tumors, which are abnormal growths of reproductive cells, such as the egg and sperm. The germ cell tumors consisted of cancerous, embryo-like and endodermal tissues, which gives rise to epithelium, a tissue lining certain body cavities. Mucin and immunological tests were positive in the case of the testicular seminoma, while certain proteins such as Ki-1 and alpha-fetoproteins were only detected in the cases of germ cell tumors. These findings suggest that, although most of the malignant elements in the seminoma originate from germ cell tumors, it is also possible that malignant elements may arise from metastases from other body sites. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Analysis, Case studies, Germ cell tumors, Germinoma, Cancer metastasis, Lung cancer, Testicular cancer

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