RESUMEN
The poor prognosis associated with lung cancer is closely related to the fact that most patients are not identified until their malignancy has reached an advanced stage. The aim of this study was to assess the role, sensitivity and of CD15 in the diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma as well as its predictive value in smoker's lungs not harboring tumor tissues. Three groups were included: Group I: 15 patients with biopsy proved adenocarcinoma. Group II: 15 patients with biopsy proved squamous cell carcinoma. Group III: 12 smokers with no evidence of malignancy and for whom bronchoscopy was done for other reasons .GI and GII were then pooled into a single group [group of pulmonary malignancy [Gpm]. Patients were excluded if their biopsy proved to be small cell lung cancer. An informed consent was taken from all patients. In addition to complete history, clinical examination, laboratory investigations, chest X-rays and CT chest, all patients were subjected to fibreoptic bronchoscopy for biopsy. Then the biopsy was stained by H and E and immunostained for CD15. The majority of the bronchogenic carcinoma cases were smokers 60% with an incidence of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of [66.7%, 53.3% respectively]. Twenty percent, 50%, and 30% of the patients in group of pulmonary malignancy presented in stages IIIa, IIIb, and IV respectively. Immunostaining for CD 15 was detected in 60% of the biopsies from group of pulmonary malignancy and none of group III with a highly significant difference [P<0.05] and a sensitivity of 73.68%, while it stained 66.7% of adenocarcinoma and 53.3% of squamous cell carcinoma with no significant differentiating value. It stained 33.3%, 38.9%, and 27.8% of tissue specimens from group of pulmonary malignancy in stages IIIa, IIIb, IV respectively with a significant positive correlation between CD 15 positivity and the stage of lung cancer. Immunostaining for CD15 has an important and significant role in the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer but it is not able to differentiate between its types. Also, it gives an important and significant clue about the dissemination and prognosis of this type of malignancy