Maspin expression patterns differ in the invasive versus lepidic growth pattern of pulmonary adenocarcinoma

Aims To test whether changes in the subcellular localization of maspin parallel morphological progression in pulmonary adenocarcinoma, we compared its expression between lepidic and invasive growth patterns. Methods Applying immunohistochemistry, we compared maspin expression in lepidic and invasive growth patterns occurring in different tumours (series #1, n = 86) as well as within the same tumour and in the same section (series #2, n = 29). Results In both series, the lepidic growth pattern (n = 45) was significantly associated with nuclear maspin, while the invasive (n = 70) with combined nuclear and cytoplasmic maspin (P