Expression of the melanoma antigen-encoding gene in human lung cancer

✍ Scribed by Yoshimatsu, Takashi; Yoshino, Ichiro; Ohgami, Akira; Takenoyama, Mitsuhiro; Hanagiri, Takeshi; Nomoto, Kikuo; Yasumoto, Kosei

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 67 KB
• Volume: 67
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9098(199802)67:2<126::aid-jso10>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

Background and objectives:

We surveyed expression of melanoma antigen-encoding genes in lung cancer because of promising implications for immunotherapy.

Methods:

We studied 57 human lung carcinoma specimens using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr).

Results:

In the samples, the expression of melanoma antigen-encoding genes 1, 2, and 3 was observed in 9/43 (20.9%), 13/43 (30.2%), and 22/48 (45.8%), respectively. in 28 cases in which all three messenger rnas were sought, 18 (64.3%) showed expression of at least one gene, 10 (35.7%) showed expression of two or three genes, and 10 (35.7%) were negative for all three genes. in a clinicopathologic analysis, melanoma antigen-encoding genes 1 and 3 were frequently expressed in squamous cell carcinomas (p = 0.0543) and in cases with regional lymph node metastasis (p = 0.0572), respectively.

Conclusions:

The high incidence of melanoma antigen-encoding gene expression in lung cancer indicates the possibility of a future specific immunotherapy for this disease.