title: Utility of immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of pleuropulmonary and mediastinal cancers: a review and update.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Immunohistochemistry has become an indispensable ancillary tool for the accurate classification of pleuropulmonary and mediastinal neoplasms necessary for therapeutic decisions and predicting prognostic outcome in the era of personalized medicine. Diagnostic accuracy has significantly improved because of the continuous discoveries of tumor-associated biomarkers and the development of effective immunohistochemical panels.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To increase the accuracy of diagnosis and classify pleuropulmonary neoplasms through immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature review, authors' research data, and personal practice experience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review article has shown that appropriately selecting immunohistochemical panels enables pathologists to effectively diagnose most primary pleuropulmonary neoplasms and differentiate primary lung tumors from a variety of metastatic tumors to the lung. The discovery of new mutation-specific antibodies identifying a subset of specific gene-arranged lung tumors provides a promising alternative and cost-effective approach to molecular testing. Knowing the utilities and pitfalls of each tumor-associated biomarker is essential to avoiding potential diagnostic errors.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pennsylvania (Drs Zhang and Deng);
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Philip T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Cagle
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor