CORRELATION OF EXPRESSION OF H/LE(Y)/LE(B) ANTIGENS WITH SURVIVAL IN PATIENTS WITH CARCINOMA OF THE LUNG

Background. The level of expression of H/Le(y)/Le(b) antigens is high in various histologic types of lung cancer, a feature that may be related to deletion of A and B blood-group antigens. We evaluated the possibility that expression of this antigen, which can be defined by the monoclonal antibody MIA-15-5, might be of prognostic value, as suggested by our previous observation that MIA-15-5 inhibits tumor-cell motility and metastasis. Methods. We used MIA-15-5 to stain tissue sections from 149 patients with primary lung cancer whose clinico-pathological histories were well documented. The survival curves for patients whose tumors stained positively were compared with the curves for those whose tumors stained negatively. Multivariate analyses were performed with a Cox proportional-hazards regression model. Results. Among the 149 patients studied, five-year survival in the 91 patients with MIA-positive tumors was significantly lower than survival in the 58 with MIA-negative tumors (20.9 percent vs. 58.6 percent, P<0.001). Among the 67 patients with squamous-cell carcinoma, the rates also differed significantly (10.5 percent vs. 62.1 percent, P<0.001). The difference in survival between patients with MIA-positive tumors and those with MIA-negative tumors was significant among patients with blood groups A and AB (P<0.001), but not among those with blood group B or 0 (P = 0.071 and 0.068, respectively). Multivariate analysis with the Cox regression model indicated that positivity best correlated with five-year mortality, followed by lymph-node status (N stage) and tumor size (T stage), whereas sex, age, and blood group did not correlate with mortality. Conclusions. Positivity for MIA (i.e., immunohistologic staining by MIA-15-5, which defines H/Le(y)/Le(b) antigens) is inversely correlated with survival among patients with primary lung cancer and may be of prognostic value.