title: Naked cuticle Drosophila 1 expression in histologic subtypes of small adenocarcinoma of the lung.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Naked cuticle Drosophila 1 (NKD1) has been related to non-small cell lung cancer in that decreased NKD1 levels have been associated with both poor prognosis and increased invasive quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty cases of lung adenocarcinoma staged as Tis or T1a were selected. Cases were subclassified into adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS), minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA), and small adenocarcinoma (SAD). Immunohistochemical studies for NKD1 were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty samples comprised five cases of AIS (12.5%), eight of MIA (20.0%), and 27 of SAD (67.5%). AIS and MIA showed no lymph node metastasis and 100% disease-free survival, whereas among 27 patients with SAD, 2 (7.4%) had lymph node metastasis, and 3 (11.1%) died from the disease. Among the 40 cases, NKD1-reduced expression was detected in 8 (20%) samples, whereas normal expression was found in 15 (37.5%) and overexpression in 17 (42.5%). Loss of NKD1 expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (p=0.001). All cases with predominant papillary pattern showed overexpression of NKD1 (p=0.026).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among MIA and SAD, MIA had better outcomes than SAD. Down-regulated NKD1 expression was closely associated with nodal metastasis, and overexpression was associated with papillary predominant adenocarcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sangjeong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Won
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hwangbo
authors.forename: Hyunchul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chul Hwan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Adenocarcinoma; Immunohistochemistry; Lung; NKD1