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Expression and clinical significance of lung‐specific X protein mRNA in bronchial brushing specimens from patients with or without lung cancer
Author(s) -
LV MING,
WU MINGZHE,
ZHAO YUJIE,
YANG DI,
WANG ENHUA,
WU GUANGPING
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
respirology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1440-1843
pISSN - 1323-7799
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1843.2011.02008.x
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , cytology , lung , pathology , cancer , messenger rna , adenocarcinoma , gastroenterology , oncology , gene , biochemistry , chemistry
Background and objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of lung‐specific X protein (LUNX) mRNA expression in bronchial brushing specimens from patients with lung cancer. Methods: LUNX mRNA levels were assessed by performing RT‐PCR on liquid‐based cytology bronchial brushing specimens from patients with lung cancer ( n = 104) or benign lung disease ( n = 91). Results: LUNX mRNA expression was significantly more frequent in patients with all carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, adenocarcinomas, as well as patients with central, peripheral and diffuse carcinomas ( P < 0.01), and non‐small cell lung carcinomas ( P < 0.05) compared with patients with benign disease. The diagnostic performance of RT‐PCR analysis of LUNX mRNA was significantly better than that of cytology in terms of sensitivity (93.3 ± 4.8% vs 64.4 ± 9.2%), negative predictive value (91.6 ± 6.0% vs 71.1 ± 7.9%) and accuracy (88.7 ± 4.4% vs 81.0 ± 5.5%), whereas specificity (83.5 ± 7.6%) and positive predictive value (86.6 ± 6.3%) were lower than those of cytology (100%). Conclusions: Liquid‐based cytology and RT‐PCR can be performed to detect LUNX mRNA expression in bronchial brushing specimens, and this technique may be a useful adjunct to cytological diagnosis of lung cancer. The sensitivity of the technique was greater than that of cytology but its lower specificity should be taken into account.