This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) A correction has been published Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mitas, M. Articles by Gillanders, W. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mitas, M. Articles by Gillanders, W. E.

JMD 2003, Vol. 5, No. 4
Copyright © 2003 American Society for Investigative Pathology & Association for Molecular Pathology

Lunx Is a Superior Molecular Marker for Detection of Non-Small Lung Cell Cancer in Peripheral Blood

Michael Mitas^*, Loretta Hoover^*, Gerard Silvestri, Carolyn Reed^*, Mark Green, Andrew T. Turrisi, Carol Sherman, Kaidi Mikhitarian^*, David J. Cole^*, Mark I. Block^* and William E. Gillanders^*

From the Departments of Surgery, * Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Medicine, and Radiation and Oncology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

The clinical management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) would benefit greatly by a test that was able to detect small amounts of NSCLC in the peripheral blood. In this report, we used a novel strategy to enrich tumor cells from the peripheral blood of 24 stage I to IV NSCLC patients and determined expression levels for six cancer-associated genes (lunx, muc1, KS1/4, CEA, CK19, and PSE). Using thresholds established at three standard deviations above the mean observed in 15 normal controls, we observed that lunx (10 of 24, 42%), muc1 (5 of 24, 21%), and CK19 (5 of 24, 21%) were overexpressed in 14 of 24 (58%) peripheral blood samples obtained from NSCLC patients. Patients who overexpressed either KS1/4 (n = 2) or PSE (n = 1) also overexpressed either lunx or muc1. Of patients with presumed curable and resectable stage I to II disease (n = 7), at least one marker was overexpressed in three (43%) patients. In advanced stage III to IV patients (n = 17), at least one marker was overexpressed in 11 patients (65%). These results provide evidence that circulating tumor cells can be detected in NSCLC patients by a high throughput molecular technique. Further studies are needed to determine the clinical relevance of gene overexpression.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. A. Barnes, L. Bingle, and C. D. Bingle Pulmonary Genomics, Proteomics, and PLUNCs Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol., April 1, 2008; 38(4): 377 - 379. [Full Text] [PDF]

				W. A. Osta, Y. Chen, K. Mikhitarian, M. Mitas, M. Salem, Y. A. Hannun, D. J. Cole, and W. E. Gillanders EpCAM Is Overexpressed in Breast Cancer and Is a Potential Target for Breast Cancer Gene Therapy Cancer Res., August 15, 2004; 64(16): 5818 - 5824. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]