Mucin 1 antigens in the serum and bronchial lavage fluid of patients with lung cancer

Abstract

Background. Lung cancer (LC) is the most common fatal malignancy, but there are no useful tumor markers for diagnosis or monitoring. Mucin 1 has an established role as a marker in other malignancies, but has undergone limited assessment in LC. Methods. Serum from 86 patients with LC and 24 with benign pulmonary disease (BPD), and bronchial lavage fluid from 55 LC patients and 21 BPD patients were tested using the Mucin 1 assays mammary serum antigen (MSA) and cancer‐associated serum antigen (CASA). Results. For LC, serum CASA achieved sensitivity of 57%, specificity of 93% relative to normals, and 63% specificity relative to BPD. For MSA the same parameters were 19%, 95%, and 92%. Serum CASA levels were significantly higher in LC patients compared with BPD (P = 0.024) but there was no difference for MSA (P = 0.635). CASA showed excellent correlation with tumor stage and in patients with changing status of disease, while MSA did not. By contrast there was no difference in bronchial lavage fluid tumor marker levels from LC and BPD patients (CASA, P = 0.87; MSA, P = 0.89). Conclusions. In a small series serum CASA appears to be a useful agent in detecting LC because it is elevated in all types and stages of LC, and its level correlates with stage and progress of disease. Some patients with BPD have elevated levels suggesting a greater value for monitoring rather than diagnosis. Both serum MSA testing and measurements of either marker in bronchial lavage fluid are of no value.

In Vivo Targeting of Underglycosylated MUC-1 Tumor Antigen Using a Multimodal Imaging Probe

“…First, MUC-1 is overexpressed on almost all human epithelial cell adenocarcinomas, including Ͼ90% of human breast (3)(4)(5)(6), ovarian (5)(6)(7)(8), pancreatic (9), colorectal (10), lung (11,12), prostate (13), colon (9), and gastric carcinomas (14). Moreover, MUC-1 expression has been demonstrated in nonepithelial cancer cell lines [astrocytoma, melanoma, and neuroblastoma (15)], as well as in hematological malignancies such as multiple myeloma and some B-cell nonHodgkin lymphomas (16 -18), in total constituting Ͼ50% of all cancers in humans (19).…”

MUC1 plays a role in tumor maintenance in aggressive thyroid carcinomas

“…MUC1 is over-expressed and aberrantly glycosylated in almost all human adenocarcinomas, including >90% of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, colorectal, lung, prostate and gastric carcinomas and has been implicated in their pathogenesis (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). MUC1 expression has also been demonstrated in nonepithelial cancer cell lines, such as astrocytoma, melanoma and neuroblastoma, as well as hematological malignancies such as multiple myeloma and some Bcell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (19)(20)(21)(22).…”

Modulation of MUC1 mucin as an escape mechanism of breast cancer cells from autologous cytotoxic T-lymphocytes

“…However, naive T-lymphocytes may have a chance to encounter mucin shed from inflamed glandular epithelial cells, or processed and presented by phagocytes following apoptotic death of the epithelial cells even in normal individuals. Levels of serum soluble MUC1 mucin are known to be elevated in patients with cancer, and even the basal levels of the mucin are detected in the sera of normal individuals as well (Burchell et al, 1984;Devine et al, 1993;Willsher et al, 1993). The presence of MUC1-reactive Tlymphocytes is reported to occur in multiparous women (Agrawal et al, 1996), and even humoral antibodies directed to MUC1 mucin appear in the sera of cancer patients (Kotera et al, 1994;von Mensdorff-Pouilly et al, 2000).…”