Open AccessSignificance of tumour cell HLA ‐G5/‐G6 isoform expression in discrimination for adenocarcinoma from squamous cell carcinoma in lung cancer patients
Author(s) -
Yan WeiHua,
Liu Di,
Lu HaiYan,
Li YingYing,
Zhang Xia,
Lin Aifen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of cellular and molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.44
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1582-4934
pISSN - 1582-1838
DOI - 10.1111/jcmm.12400
Subject(s) - adenosquamous carcinoma , adenocarcinoma , immunohistochemistry , pathology , lung cancer , large cell , carcinoma , monoclonal antibody , metastasis , cancer , medicine , human leukocyte antigen , biology , cancer research , antigen , antibody , immunology
Human leucocyte antigen ( HLA )‐G has seven isoforms, of which HLA ‐G1‐G4 are membrane‐bound and HLA ‐G5‐G7 are soluble. Previous studies reinforced HLA ‐G expression was strongly related to poor prognosis in different types of cancers. Among these studies, the monoclonal antibody (mAb) 4H84 was used which detects all HLA ‐G isoform heavy chain; unfortunately, leaves the specific types of isoforms expressed in lesions undistinguished and its clinical significance needs to be clarified. To explore clinical significance of lesion soluble HLA ‐G (s HLA ‐G) in non‐small‐cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ), mAb 5A6G7 recognizing HLA ‐G5/‐G6 molecules was used. Tumour cell s HLA ‐G expression in 131 primary NSCLC lesions (66 squamous cell carcinoma, 55 adenocarcinoma and 10 adenosquamous carcinoma) were analysed with immunohistochemistry. Data showed that s HLA ‐G expression was observed in 34.0% (45/131) of the NSCLC lesions, which was unrelated to patient age, sex, lymph nodal status, tumour–node–metastasis stage and patient survival. However, tumour cell s HLA ‐G expression in lesions was predominately observed in adenocarcinoma lesions (73.0%, 40/55) which was significantly higher than that in squamous cell carcinoma (6.0%, 4/66) and adenosquamous carcinoma lesions (10.0%, 1/10, P < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for lesion s HLA ‐G was 0.833 (95% CI : 0.754–0.912, P < 0.001) for adenocarcinoma versus squamous cell carcinoma. Our findings for the first time showed that tumour cell s HLA ‐G was predominately expressed in lung adenocarcinoma, which could be a useful biomarker to discriminate adenocarcinoma from squamous cell carcinoma in NSCLC patients.