Background: The role of Lewis y (Le(y)) antigen expression has been studied extensively in predicting the outcome of various malignancies. We evaluated the expression of Le(y) and its relationship to survival, disease-free survival and other clinicopathologic variables in patients with stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Objective: To investigate the prognostic significance of Le(y) antigen expression in a large group of well characterized patients with resected stage I and II NSCLC.
Patients: Two hundred and sixty patients with surgically resected stage I (n = 193) and II (n = 67) NSCLC with at least 5-year follow-up were identified.
Results: The median survival for patients with negative expression of Le(y) (< 50% of cells that were positive) was 46 months, whereas for those with positive expression of Le(y) (> or = 50%), the median survival was 54 months (p = 0.99). The disease-free survival for patients with Le(y)(-) expression was 39 months and 34 months for patients with Le(y)(+) expression (p = 0.3).
Conclusions: We found no relationship between loss of blood group antigen A and expression of Le(y). No statistically significant difference was found in survival between positive and negative expression of Le(y) antigen in patients with resected stage I and II NSCLC.