Takeshi Funatsu

Study of NCC-ST-439 in patients with lung cancer

Abstract NCC-ST-439 is a glycoprotein recognized by a monoclonal antibody (ST-439) which is obtained by using a human gastric cancer xenograph, ST-4, as an immunogen. Using a Lana Enzyme Kit from Nippon Kayaku, we measured the serum level of NCC-ST-439 in 223 patients with lung cancer, 344 patients with benign lung diseases and 97 healthy adults. When we adopted a cut-off level of 4.5 U/ml for women aged 50 years or more and for men of any age, and 7.0 U/ml for women aged less than 50, the overall positive rates were 22.0% for the lung cancer patients, 7.0% for patients with benign lung diseases and 3.1% for the healthy adults. The positive rate of the lung cancer patients was significantly higher than for patients with benign lung diseases (P According to the histological type of lung cancer, the positive rates were 34.3% for 105 patients with adenocarcinoma, 9.8% for 68 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, and 16.7% for 6 patients with large cell carcinoma. Classification of the lung cancer patients revealed positive rates for serum NCC-ST-439 of 0% for 40 Stage I patients, 8.3% in 12 Stage II patients, 12.5% in 48 Stage IIIA patients, 37.0% in 46 Stage IIIB patients, and 33.3% in 45 Stage IV patients. After we performed immunostaining for NCC-ST-439 using ST-439, positive immunoactivity was demonstrated mainly in the membrane of adenocarcinoma cells. NCC-ST-439 thus seems to be a tumor associated marker in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Correlation between Loss of Heterozygosity of p53 Gene and Amplification of Oncogenes in Cases of Resected Lung Cancer.

凍結保存していた切除肺癌組織と同一患者の正常肺組織60例を用いて, p53遺伝子の腫瘍特異的多型性喪失 (LOH) と, myc系, ras系, c-erbB-2遺伝子の増幅について検討した. 対立遺伝子がhomozygote (HOMO) であったのは37例, heterozygote (HETERO) であったのは23例で, このうち7例でLOHを認めた. LOHのあった症例のうち他の癌遺伝子に増幅を認めたのは1例だけであり, HOMO症例では12例 (46%) で他の癌遺伝子の増幅を認めた. LOHは病期別ではI期2例 (8%), IIIA期3例 (19%), IV期2例 (25%) で認め, 組織型別では腺癌5例 (15%), 扁平上皮癌2例 (9%) で認めた. HETERO症例のうち, LOHのあった症例の平均生存期間 (MST) は22カ月, LOHの無かった症例のMSTは19カ月で有意差はなかった. p53のLOHは病期が進むほど増加するが予後との関連性は無く, 組織型との関連性も無かった. 癌遺伝子の増幅はLOHを認めない症例で多くみられた.