ABSTRACT
Primary lung adenocarcinomas in non-smoking females are increasing in the USA and Japan. Environmental factors such as passive smoking, asbestos, domestic radon, and hormonal effects have been implicated, but the etiology is still uncertain. We therefore analyzed point mutations of p16 gene, a newly characterized tumor suppressor gene, and compared the results with alterations of p53 gene in 28 primary lung adenocarcinomas in non-smoking Japanese females. There were no cases with somatic point mutation of p16 gene, except for one case with two germline mutations (silent mutations). In contrast, six out of 16 informative cases showed loss of heterozygosity of p53 gene using a TP53 microsatellite marker and 19 out of 28 cases showed expression of oncoprotein using DO-7 immunohistochemistry. These findings suggest that p16 gene alteration is a rare event in primary lung adenocarcinomas in Japanese non-smoking females, compared with alterations of the p53 gene.
Subject(s)
Adenocarcinoma/genetics , Carrier Proteins/genetics , Genes, Tumor Suppressor , Genes, p53 , Lung Neoplasms/genetics , Adult , Aged , Base Sequence , Chromosome Deletion , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9 , Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 , DNA Primers/chemistry , DNA, Neoplasm/genetics , Female , Genetic Markers , Humans , Japan , Middle Aged , Molecular Sequence Data , Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational , SmokingABSTRACT
A 68-year-old man was referred because of an abnormal shadow in the right upper lung field on a chest X-ray film. After the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the lung, left upper lobectomy was done. Histologically, adenocarcinoma with foci of squamous cell carcinoma was seen. About 11 months after that operation, he suddenly noticed a decrease in visual acuity on the left side. The fundus of the eye was tested and metastatic choroidal cancer was suspected. To prevent rupture, the eyeball was enucleated. The choroidal tumor appeared to have components of squamous cell carcinoma from primary lung cancer. About 7 months after enucleation of his eyeball, the patient was disease-free with no decrease in his quality of life. As a result of a recent increase in the incidence of lung cancer, it is important to pay attention to ophthalmological tests in patients with primary lung cancer.
