Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 105, Issue 9 , Pages 695-700, 2006

Utility of Thyroid Transcription Factor-1 Expression in the Differential Diagnosis of Metastatic Adenocarcinoma of Serous Effusion Specimens Prepared Using the Cell Transfer Technique

  • I-Shiow Jan

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ping-Fung Chung

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ming-Hsiang Weng

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Min-Se Huang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ya-Ting Lee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Sow-Hsong Kuo

      Affiliations

    • Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Sow-Hsong Kuo, Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Received 4 November 2005; received in revised form 14 December 2005; accepted 7 February 2006.

Background/Purpose

Pulmonary adenocarcinoma is a common malignancy of the pleural cavity. The cell transfer technique can be used to create multiple slides from a single smear. The goal of this study was to investigate the pulmonary origin of metastatic adenocarcinoma by evaluating the immunocytochemi-cal reactivity to thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) of slides of serous effusion specimens prepared by the cell transfer technique.

Methods

In 2001, a total of 76 archived serous effusion specimens containing adenocarcinoma from patients were used in this study. The primary site of metastatic adenocarcinoma was determined by a review of the medical records. The cell transfer technique was used to create multiple slides from a single Papanicolaou-stained smear. If more than 10% of the target cells reacted with perceptible intensity, nuclear staining was considered to indicate a positive TTF-1 result.

Results

Positive rates of TTF-1 for body fluids collected from patients with lung, stomach, ovarian, breast, colorectal and liver carcinomas were 41/50, 0/11, 0/6, 0/5, 0/2 and 0/1, respectively. Lung adenocarci-noma showed TTF-1 positivity in 82% of specimens, and all other adenocarcinomas had negative TTF-1 staining results.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that TTF-1 immunostaining in serous effusion specimens prepared using the cell transfer technique is a sensitive and highly specific marker for metastatic lung adenocarci-noma.

Key Words:  body fluid , cytology , immunocytochemistry , thyroid transcription factor-1

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PII: S0929-6646(09)60196-0

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(09)60196-0

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 105, Issue 9 , Pages 695-700, 2006

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