title: Cytokeratins and lung carcinomas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, cytokeratins (CK) were studied as tumor markers for many carcinomas. In lung cancer they appeared to be useful in distinguishing primary from secondary tumors, in histological typing as well as in evaluating patient's prognosis. However, the results have yet to be conclusive. In this study, expression of CK7, CK10/13, CK18, CK19, CK20 was investigated in a group of 72 surgically resected specimens of lung including 31 adenocarcinomas, 30 squamous cell carcinomas and 11 neuroendocrine carcinomas. Cytokeratin immunophenotypes were analyzed in comparison to histological characteristics of tumors, TNM stages and patients survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CK7, CK10/13 and CK18 can be used in distinguishing the lung adenocarcinomas from the lung squamous cell carcinomas: CK7(+), CK10/13(-), CK18(+) for adenocarcinomas; CK7(-), CK10/13(+), CK18(-) for squamous cell carcinomas. Relatively higher CK7 and CK18 immunostaining rates of the squamous cell carcinomas with high keratinization, with high percentage of dead cells and with late stages of disease suggested their prognostic significance but it was not confirmed when comparing different survival groups. Both adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas were stained strongly with antibody against CK19 (90.3% and 86.7% respectively) but much less with anti-CK20 antibody (9.7% and 3.3% respectively). In general, neuroendocrine tumors of the lung were non-reactive for these cytokeratins except CK18, among them all carcinoid tumors expressed CK18 abundantly.
authors.affiliation: Hlava Institute of Pathology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague.
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Nhung
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mirejovský
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mirejovský
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Melínová
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008970:Molecular Weight; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007633:Keratins