Use of a transgenic mouse model to identify markers of human lung tumors

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. Despite advances in detection technologies, most patients diagnosed with lung cancer already harbor metastatic lesions. Because early detection is one of the primary determinants of patient outcome, a transgenic mouse model of lung cancer was utilized to identify markers of early lung tumors in humans. DNA microarray analysis of lung tumors arising in MMTV-IGF-II transgenic mice showed 9 genes consistently elevated in the murine lung tumors. Western blot analyses confirmed that several of these proteins were elevated in the lung tumors and immunohistochemical analyses identified 3 proteins, microsomal glutathione-S-transferase 1 (Mgst1), cathepsin H and syndecan 1 as being consistently elevated in the murine lung tumors compared to non-tumor bearing transgenic lung tissue and normal lung tissue surrounding the tumor. These 3 proteins were also elevated in human lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinomas. Importantly, the proteins were elevated in early stage, node negative tumors indicating their ability to detect early lung lesions that would be amenable to surgical resection. Therefore, our findings indicate that Mgst1, cathepsin H and syndecan 1 should be further evaluated as markers capable of identifying patients with early stage lung tumors.