Anti-Podocalyxin Monoclonal Antibody 47-mG_2a Detects Lung Cancers by Immunohistochemistry

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the world. Regardless of the advances in lung cancer treatments, the prognosis is still poor. Podocalyxin (PODXL) is a highly glycosylated type I transmembrane protein that is expressed in normal tissues, including the heart, pancreas, and breast. It is also found and used as a diagnostic marker in many cancers, such as renal, brain, breast, oral, and lung cancers. We previously developed specific and sensitive anti-PODXL monoclonal antibodies, PcMab-47 (mouse IgG₁, kappa) and its mouse IgG_2a-type (47-mG_2a), both of which were suitable for immunohistochemical analyses of oral cancers. In this study, we investigated the utility of PcMab-47 and 47-mG_2a for the immunohistochemical analyses of lung cancers. PcMab-47 stained 51/70 (72.9%) cases of lung cancer, whereas 47-mG_2a stained 59/70 (84.3%) cases, indicating that the latter antibody is more sensitive and is useful for detecting PODXL in lung cancers.