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. 2003 Apr 22;88(8):1229-33.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6600879.

Aspartic proteinase napsin is a useful marker for diagnosis of primary lung adenocarcinoma

T Ueno  1 , S Linder, G Elmberger
Affiliations

Aspartic proteinase napsin is a useful marker for diagnosis of primary lung adenocarcinoma

T Ueno et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Napsin A is an aspartic proteinase expressed in lung and kidney. We have reported that napsin A is expressed in type II pneumocytes and in adenocarcinomas of the lung. The expression of napsin was examined in 118 lung tissues including 16 metastases by in situ hybridisation. Napsin was expressed in the tumour cell compartment in 33 of 39 adenocarcinomas (84.6%), in two of 11 large cell carcinomas and in one lung metastasis of a renal cell carcinoma. Expression of napsin was found to be associated with a high degree of differentiation in adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemistry was performed for three proteins currently used as markers for lung adenocarcinoma : surfactant protein-A, surfactant protein-B and thyroid transcription factor-1. Thyroid transcription factor-1 showed the same sensitivity (84.6%) as napsin for adenocarcinoma, whereas surfactant protein-A and surfactant protein-B showed lower sensitivities. Among these markers, napsin showed the highest specificity (94.3%) for adenocarcinoma in nonsmall cell lung carcinoma. We conclude that napsin is a promising marker for the diagnosis of primary lung adenocarcinoma.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Expression of napsin, Sp-A, Sp-B and TTF-1 in type II pneumocytes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Expression of napsin, Sp-A, Sp-B and TTF-1 in lung adenocarcinoma.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Expression of each marker in relation to differentiation grade of lung adenocarcinoma. Napsin showed an association with the differentiation grade of adenocarcinoma. A similar association was observed for Sp-A.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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