[Association Between the pH and Clinicopathological Characteristics of Lung Cancer Tissue]

Recent studies have shown that cancer cells surviving in a microenvironment characterized by hypoxia, low pH, and low glucose level have an ability to adapt to the adverse conditions. We measured the pH in the central tumor area of primary lung cancer, and evaluated its association with clinicopathological factors. There was a negative correlation between the tumor size and pH;with an increase in the tumor size, the pH decreased. Cancer cells grow at a markedly low pH compared with the physiological environment. There is a possibility that this low pH is a microenvironment that is appropriate rather than adverse for the growth and development of cancer cells.