Objectives: Accurate and reliable diagnostics are crucial as histopathological type influences selection of treatment in lung cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate real-world accuracy and use of immunohistochemical (IHC) staining in lung cancer diagnostics.
Materials and methods: The diagnosis and used IHC stains for small specimens with lung cancer on follow-up resection were retrospectively investigated for a 15-month period at two major sites in Sweden. Additionally, 10 pathologists individually suggested diagnostic IHC staining for 15 scanned bronchial and lung biopsies and cytological specimens.
Results: In 16 (4.7%) of 338 lung cancer cases, a discordant diagnosis of potential clinical relevance was seen between a small specimen and the follow-up resection. In half of the cases, there was a different small specimen from the same investigational work-up with a concordant diagnosis. Diagnostic inaccuracy was often related to a squamous marker not included in the IHC panel (also seen for the scanned cases), the case being a neuroendocrine tumor, thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) expression in squamous cell carcinomas (with clone SPT24), or poor differentiation. IHC was used in about 95% of cases, with a higher number of stains in biopsies and in squamous cell carcinomas and especially neuroendocrine tumors. Pre-surgical transthoracic samples were more often diagnostic than bronchoscopic ones (72-85% vs. 9-53% for prevalent types).
Conclusions: Although a high overall diagnostic accuracy of small specimens was seen, small changes in routine practice (such as consequent inclusion of p40 and TTF-1 clone 8G7G3/1 in the IHC panel for non-small cell cancer with unclear morphology) may lead to improvement, while reducing the number of IHC stains would be preferable from a time and cost perspective.
Keywords: TTF-1; biopsy; bronchoscopy; cytology; sampling; transthoracic.