Loss of blood group antigen A in non-small cell lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
Many human tumor cells display alterations in blood group antigen expression, and the loss of antigen A expression by non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in blood group A patients has recently been associated with decreased survival.


METHODS
To confirm this finding, we performed a retrospective study of 62 NSCLC patients undergoing potentially curative resection between August 1987 and December 1991 who were blood group A and had paraffin-embedded primary lung cancer tissue suitable for immunohistological analysis of antigen A expression. Twenty-seven patients expressed antigen A in their tumors, whereas 35 had loss of antigen expression. Disease-free survival (DFS) curves were calculated for stage I (n = 26) and IIIA (n = 25) patients.


RESULTS
The two groups of patients with or without antigen A expression did not have significantly different DFS. A proportional hazards regression analysis identified no significant difference in the DFS of stage I patients with or without antigen A, but stage IIIA patients who had preservation of antigen A had significantly shorter DFS than did those who lost antigen A (p = 0.0002).


CONCLUSIONS
The loss of expression of antigen A by primary tumor cells was not a significant adverse prognostic factor in DFS in our series, and we would recommend further studies to define clearly the clinical importance of antigen A expression in pulmonary carcinoma.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
J L
JL
Gwin
A J
AJ
Klein-Szanto
S Y
SY
Zhang
P
P
Agarwal
A
A
Rogatko
S M
SM
Keller
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011013:Pneumonectomy; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm