Lewis Y antigen expression and postoperative survival in non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: In contrast to other Lewis blood group-related antigens, Lewis Y antigen (LeY) has not been fully investigated in non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: To assess the significance of LeY expression, 236 patients with completely resected pathologic stage 1-3a were reviewed with immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: LeY expression was positive in 179 patients (75.8%). In poorly differentiated cancer, percentage of LeY-positive patients was lower than in moderately to well-differentiated cancer (67.2% versus 81.2%, p = 0.028). Five-year survival rate of LeY-positive patients was 78.2%, significantly higher than that of LeY-negative patients (59.7%, p = 0.001). Combined with p53 status, differences in survival proved to be marked; 5-year survival rate of patients with positive LeY expression and without aberrant p53 expression, was as high as 83.3%, whereas that of patients with negative LeY expression and with aberrant p53 expression was only 38.4% (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed that LeY expression was a significant independent factor to predict better survival. CONCLUSIONS: LeY expression is a significant prognostic factor related to grade of cancer differentiation.