Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6) is a prognostic biomarker in patients with surgically resected nonsmall cell lung cancer

✍ Scribed by Sonosuke Tanaka; Noboru Hattori; Nobuhisa Ishikawa; Hiroyasu Shoda; Atsushi Takano; Ryohei Nishino; Morihito Okada; Koji Arihiro; Kouki Inai; Hironobu Hamada; Akihito Yokoyama; Nobuoki Kohno

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 648 KB
• Volume: 130
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.26007

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

By immunizing mice with a lung adenocarcinoma cell line, we previously established a murine IgG1 monoclonal antibody that recognizes a sialylated sugar chain designated Krebs von den Lungen‐6 (KL‐6). KL‐6 is a high–molecular‐weight glycoprotein classified as a human MUC1 mucin. The aim of this study was to determine whether KL‐6 expression in tumors correlates with circulating KL‐6 levels and whether circulating KL‐6 has any prognostic value in patients with surgically resected non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Immunohistochemical analysis of KL‐6 expression was performed on 103 NSCLC tissues, and its associations with serum KL‐6 levels and survival were examined. We also evaluated whether KL‐6 expression patterns and/or serum KL‐6 levels could predict prognosis in these NSCLC patients. Immunohistochemical analysis of KL‐6 in NSCLC tissues showed that a depolarized KL‐6 expression pattern was associated with a high level of circulating KL‐6 and a poor prognosis in NSCLC patients who underwent curative surgery. Furthermore, a high circulating KL‐6 level was associated with both poorer progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and multivariate analyses confirmed its independent prognostic value for both PFS and OS (p = 0.041 and 0.023, respectively). Our data suggest that preoperative serum KL‐6 level reflects KL‐6 expression patterns in NSCLC tissue, and can serve as a useful prognostic biomarker in NSCLC patients who undergo curative surgery.