RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The role of alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) in pathogenesis and diagnosis of different types of cancer has been investigated during last decade. This study is conducted to investigate AMACR expression in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of lung and its correlation with clinical characteristics and survival. METHODS: The clinicopathologic characteristics of 146 patients who underwent a potentially curative surgical resection between June 2000-2009 in our clinic were reviewed retrospectively. The patients who were given adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, with an evidence of residual tumor at resection margin and who died due to postoperative mortality and due to reasons not related to lung cancer were excluded. Data from remaining 67 patients were analyzed for survival. For the correlation between progression and AMACR immunoreactivity, data from 62 patients who had postoperative follow up in our center were analyzed. RESULTS: AMACR immunoreactivity was observed more frequently in adenocarcinoma group than SCC group (p = 0,046). The samples with invasive adenocarcinoma--lepidic predominant pattern also showed high rates of positive staining (73%). We could not show a statistically significant correlation between AMACR immunostaining and degree of differentiation, age, gender, pathologic T status, N status, or stage. We failed to show a statistically meaningful effect of AMACR on overall and progression-free survival. CONCLUSION: Adenocarcinoma had higher rates of positive immunostaining for AMACR than SCC (p = 0,046). But the presence of AMACR expression did not have a statistically meaningful effect on overall and progression-free survival in adenocarcinoma and SCC of lung.
