E-cadherin in mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of E-cadherin in mesothelioma, by M. Jeffers (Human Pathology, 1996).

The study

• Author: M. Jeffers
• Journal: Human Pathology
• Published: 1996;27(11):1245-6
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is a short letter to the editor, not a full research study. The author was responding to an earlier article by Peralta Soler and colleagues. That article had described low levels of the protein E-cadherin in some pleural mesotheliomas and had recommended testing for both N-cadherin and E-cadherin to tell mesothelioma apart from lung adenocarcinoma. The author's group had begun staining samples of serous effusions (fluid collections) for E-cadherin, aiming to find staining patterns that help distinguish mesothelioma from adenocarcinoma. So far they had examined only two mesotheliomas: one confirmed by tissue examination and one diagnosed from cytology alone. Both showed strong cytoplasmic staining in the malignant cells. Four of five cases of metastatic adenocarcinoma also stained strongly. Three cases of reactive (non-cancerous) mesothelium were negative. The author concluded that strong E-cadherin staining in mesothelioma cytology samples raised doubts about the validity of using this antibody to diagnose serous effusions. The letter did not discuss asbestos or any other exposure.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor reporting preliminary observations from an ongoing prospective immunocytochemistry study of serous effusion samples
• Who was studied: Cytospin samples of serous effusions: two mesotheliomas (one confirmed histologically, one diagnosed on cytology alone), five metastatic adenocarcinomas and three cases of reactive mesothelium. The author was based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Scotland. No dates are given.
• Main results:
  • In both mesothelioma samples (2 of 2), malignant cells showed strong cytoplasmic staining for E-cadherin.
  • Four of five metastatic adenocarcinoma cases also showed strong positive staining for E-cadherin.
  • All three cases of reactive mesothelium were negative for E-cadherin.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the strong E-cadherin expression seen in mesothelioma cytology samples raises doubts about the validity of using this antibody in diagnosing serous effusions.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Only two mesotheliomas had been examined so far, and one of them was diagnosed on cytology alone, without histological confirmation.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• E-cadherin and calretinin: a useful combination of immunochemical markers for differentiation between mesothelioma and metastatic adenocarcinoma — M.P. Leers, M.M. Aarts, et al. (1998)
• The differential expression of N-cadherin and E-cadherin distinguishes pleural mesotheliomas from lung adenocarcinomas — A. Peralta Soler, K.A. Knudsen, et al. (1995)
• Differential expression of N-cadherin in pleural mesotheliomas and E-cadherin in lung adenocarcinomas in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues — A.C. Han, A. Peralta-Soler, et al. (1997)
• E-cadherin, E-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule: immunohistochemical markers for differentiation between mesothelioma and metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma? — A.M. Müller, A. Weichert, et al. (2002)
• E-cadherin and cytokeratin subtype profiling in effusion cytology — J. Han, M.K. Kim, et al. (2004)
• Expression of E-cadherin in bone and soft tissue sarcomas: a possible role in epithelial differentiation — H. Sato, T. Hasegawa, et al. (1999)

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