Prognostic value of cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow and lymph nodes of patients with resected nonsmall cell lung cancer: a multicenter prospective study.
BACKGROUND
This study was designed to prospectively substantiate the prognostic value of cytokeratin-positive (CK(+)) cells in the bone marrow (BM) and regional lymph nodes (LNs) in resected nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients from a large population within a multicenter study.


METHODS
The study population consisted of 351 patients with stages I to IIIA NSCLC from 15 Japanese institutes. BM aspirates were stained immunocytochemically with the anti-cytokeratin antibody, CK2. The hilar and mediastinal LNs of 216 patients with stage I NSCLC were stained immunohistochemically with the anti-CK antibody, AE1/AE3.


RESULTS
CK(+) cells were detected in 112 patients (31.9%) of the 351 BM aspirate patients. The frequency of CK(+) cells showed no differences among pathologic stages. The patients with CK(+) cells in the BM had a tendency to have shorter survival periods than those without CK(+) cells (p = 0.076). Although the presence of CK(+) cells in the BM of patients with stage I did not allow the prediction of overall survival, it reduced the overall survival significantly in patients with stages II to IIIA. CK(+) cells in the LNs were detected in 34 of 216 patients (15.7%) with stage I. The patients with CK(+) cells in the LNs had a poor prognosis by both univariate (p = 0.004) and multivariate analyses (p = 0.018).


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of CK(+) cells in the BM was related to a poor prognosis for patients with stages II to IIIA NSCLC; however, it did not predict the prognosis of patients with stage I. For stage I NSCLC, the detection of CK(+) cells in the LNs implied a poor prognosis for the patients.
Yasumoto
Kosei
K
Department of Surgery II, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan. k-yasumo@med.uoeh-u.ac.jp
Osaki
Toshihiro
T
Watanabe
Yoh
Y
Kato
Harubumi
H
Yoshimura
Takesumi
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007633:Keratins