Clinical Cancer Research, Vol 3, Issue 1 87-93, Copyright © 1997 by American Association for Cancer Research

ARTICLES

Blood group antigen A and flow cytometric analysis in resected early-stage non-small cell lung cancer

SL Graziano, AH Tatum, NJ Gonchoroff, NB Newman and LJ Kohman
Department of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.

The loss of blood group antigen A on tumor tissue has been reported to be a strong adverse prognostic marker for patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results have varied with respect to the prognostic significance of flow cytometric data. We sought to confirm the prognostic significance of blood group antigen A loss and flow cytometry in a large cohort of patients with early-stage NSCLC. Two hundred and sixty patients with surgically resected stage I (n = 193) and II (n = 67) NSCLC with at least a 5-year follow-up were identified. Using paraffin-embedded primary tumor, immunohistochemical stains for blood group antigen A were performed on 90 patients with blood type A or AB. The DNA index and percentage of cells in S phase were successfully obtained on 188 and 152 patients, respectively. The median survival time of the patients with primary tumors negative for blood group antigen A was 38 months (n = 36), compared with 98 months (n = 54) for those with antigen A-positive tumors (P < 0.01). The median disease-free survival times for antigen A-negative and -positive tumors were 26 months and 98 months, respectively (P < h 0.01). The median survival time of the patients with aneuploid tumors was 51 months (n = 131), compared with 50 months (n = 57) for those with diploid tumors (P = 0.42). The median survival time of the patients with S phase >8% was 44 months (n = 105), compared with 60 months (n = 47) for those with S phase </=8% (P = 0.18). Multivariate analysis showed that the loss of antigen A, higher N and T stages, and the presence of mucin predicted for poorer disease-free and overall survival. In the subgroup of patients with blood group A or AB, the loss of A antigen was the most powerful negative predictor of survival. Aneuploidy and percentage of cells in S phase were not of prognostic significance in this group of patients with resected stage I and II NSCLC. The value of blood group antigen A analysis needs to be evaluated in larger and prospective studies of early-stage NSCLC. Alteration of blood group antigen cell surface expression may represent an important marker for more aggressive biological and metastatic behavior in NSCLC.

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