BACKGROUND Angiogenesis in individuals with various solid tumors has provided useful information on tumor progression and prognosis, and many examples of mast cell (MC) accumulation coupled with angiogenesis can be found in the literature. METHODS Utilizing monoclonal antibodies for tryptase that are specific markers for MC and for the endothelial surface marker CD34, the authors quantified MC infiltration in 180 patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma who underwent curative tumor resection, to investigate the relation between mast cell density (MCD) and microvessel density (MVD), clinicopathologic factors, and prognosis. RESULTS A significant association was found between MCD and MVD (P < 0.0001). The MC count was significantly related to tumor progression, involving N classification and stage (P = 0.0002 for N classification and P = 0.0015 for stage). A significant difference in the rate of patient survival was detected between patients whose tumors had an MCD defined as high and those whose tumors had an MCD defined as low (P < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis also showed that MCD was significantly related to survival (P = 0.0378). CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that MC infiltration may contribute to tumor angiogenesis and tumor progression, and that MCD is a useful prognostic marker in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Cancer 2000;88:2686–92. © 2000 American Cancer Society.

In 1987 Evans 1 described 2 metastasizing soft tissue tumors with deceptively benign histologic appearance that he named low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma (LGFM). Twentynine cases of LGFM have since been reported in the literature, 1-5 but no report has been published of the condition arising in the mediastinum. We describe a patient with a deceptively benign-appearing LGFM arising in the mediastinum, which recurred 9 years after original resection.Clinical summary. In February 1990, a routine screening chest x-ray film of a subjectively healthy 35-year-old man revealed a tumor in the anterior portion of the left mediastinum that had been gradually enlarging for 7 years. Through a median sternotomy, the mass, measuring 9.0 × 5.5 × 3.0 cm and well capsulated in the anterior mediastinum, 970 Brief communications

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Autocrine motility factors (AMF) have been shown to play an important role in tumor cell migration and metastasis. We have detected AMF expression in tissue specimens from 119 patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma and examined the relationship between AMF expression, clinicopathological factors and prognosis. AMF expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis and stage. The prognosis of AMF-positive patients was poorer than that of AMF-negative patients. The expression of AMF correlated with more tumor aggressiveness and worse prognosis in pulmonary adenocarcinomas.