Prognostic Significance of Lewis y Antigen in Resected Stage I and II Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

The role of Lewis y (Ley) antigen expression has been studied extensively in predicting the outcome of various malignancies. We evaluated the expression of Ley 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). To investigate the prognostic significance of Ley antigen expression in a large group of well characterized patients with resected stage I and II NSCLC. 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. The median survival for patients with negative expression of Ley (< 50% of cells that were positive) was 46 months, whereas for those with positive expression of Ley (≥ 50%), the median survival was 54 months (p = 0.99). The disease-free survival for patients with Ley(–) expression was 39 months and 34 months for patients with Ley(+) expression (p = 0.3). Conclusions: We found no relationship between loss of blood group antigen A and expression of Ley. No statistically significant difference was found in survival between positive and negative expression of Ley antigen in patients with resected stage I and II NSCLC.