Biological markers in human lung carcinoma: an immunopathological study of six antigens

Immunohistological methods were used to investigate the presence of calcitonin, thyrotrophin, carcinoembryonic antigen, beta pregnancy specific glycoprotein, human placental lactogen, and the beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotrophin in formalin fixed lung tumour tissue sections. Carcinoembryonic antigen was observed in 71% of 101 tumours studied (70%), beta 1 pregnancy specific glycoprotein in 66 of 97 tumours (68%), beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotrophin in 35 of 97 (36%), human placental lactogen in 19 of 97 (20%), calcitonin in 10 of 71 (14%), and thyrotrophin in one of 27 lung tumours studied. There appeared to be no direct association between the presence of any given marker and the presence of any other. Similarly, the association between the presence of a tumour marker and histological type was poor. This study shows that the presence of tumour markers is relatively common in human lung tumours.