The cell adhesion molecule, E-cadherin, distinguishes mesothelial cells from carcinoma cells in fluids

✍ Scribed by Schofield, Kevin ;D'Aquila, Thomas ;Rimm, David L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 275 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19971025)81:5<293::aid-cncr7>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

Thin Prep processor. The specimens were comprised of a mix of 45 cases that were diagnosed as carcinoma, suspicious, or reactive by Papanicolaou staining of routine material seen by the authors' service. Routine immunologic techniques were used with a commercially available E-cadherin antibody.

RESULTS.

In most cases of carcinoma, tumor cells showed a strong positive membranous reaction product (32 of 37). This included four cases that were not cytomorphologically diagnosed as malignant, but subsequently proved to be malignant. E-cadherin staining was not observed in five tumors, two of which were not expected to express this protein. One benign case showed cells staining for E-cadherin, although the cells were not malignant by morphologic criteria. Because this case was a surgical pelvic washing, these cells more likely were epithelial contaminants than true false-positives.

CONCLUSIONS.

The epithelial specific cell-cell adhesion marker E-cadherin reliably distinguishes reactive mesothelial cells from carcinoma and is a useful adjunctive test to distinguish benign reactive mesothelial cells from well differentiated carcinoma cells in fluid specimens.