Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignant cancer that is classified into four subtypes based on the expression of the following key transcription and co-transcription factors: ASCL1, NEUROD1, YAP1, and POU2F3. The protein expression levels of these key molecules may be important for the formation of SCLC characteristics in a molecular subtype-specific manner. We expect that immunohistochemistry (IHC) of these molecules may facilitate the diagnosis of the specific SCLC molecular subtype and aid in the appropriate selection of individualized treatments. We attempted IHC of the four key factors and 26 candidate SCLC target molecules selected from the gene expression omnibus datasets of 47 SCLC samples, which were grouped based on positive or negative results for the four key molecules. We examined differences in the expression levels of the candidate targets and key molecules. ASCL1 showed the highest positive rate in SCLC samples, and significant differences were observed in the expression levels of some target molecules between the ASCL1-positive and ASCL1-negative groups. Furthermore, the four key molecules were coordinately and simultaneously expressed in SCLC cells. An IHC study of ASCL1-positive samples showed many candidate SCLC target molecules, and IHC could become an essential method for determining SCLC molecular subtypes.

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BackgroundThe detection rate of synchronous multiple lung adenocarcinomas (SMLA), which display multiple ground glass opacity nodules in the peripheral lung, is increasing due to advances in high resolution computed tomography. The backgrounds of multicentric development of adenocarcinoma are unknown. In this study, we quantitated estrogen concentration in the peripheral lungs of postmenopausal female patients with SMLA.MethodsThe tissue concentration of estrogens (estrone [E1] and estdadiol [E2]) in the noncancerous peripheral lung were measured with liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry in postmenopausal female patients with lung adenocarcinoma. The expression levels of CYP19A1 in the normal lung were also quantitated with real-time PCR. Thirty patients with SMLA and 79 cases of control patients with single lung adenocarcinoma were analyzed.ResultsThe concentrations of E1 and E2 in the noncancerous tissue were significantly higher in SMLA cases than control cases (P = 0.004 and P = 0.02, respectively). The minor allele (A) of single nucleotide polymorphism rs3764221 were significantly associated with higher concentration of E1 and E2 (P = 0.002 and P = 0.01, respectively) and higher CYP19A1 mRNA expression (P = 0.03).ConclusionThe tissue estrogen concentration of peripheral lung was significantly higher in SMLA than control cases. The high concentration of estrogen may be one of the causes of multicentric development of peripheral lung adenocarcinomas.

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Neuroendocrine (NE) differentiation has been histochemically detected in normal and cancer tissues and cells. Immunohistochemical analyses have provided a more detailed understanding of NE biology and pathology. Pulmonary NE cells are a rare lung epithelial type, and small cell carcinoma of the lung (SCLC) is a high-grade NE tumor. Pulmonary NE and SCLC cells share common mechanisms for NE differentiation. Neural or NE cell lineage-specific transcription factors, such as achaete-scute homologue 1 (Ascl1) and insulinoma-associated protein 1 (INSM1), are crucial for the development of pulmonary NE cells, and NE differentiation is influenced by the balance between Ascl1 and the suppressive neural transcription factor, hairy-enhancer of split 1, a representative target molecule of the Notch signaling pathway. In this review, we discuss the importance of Ascl1 and INSM1 in identifying pulmonary NE and SCLC cells and introduce Ascl1-related molecules detected by comparative RNA-sequence analyses. The molecular classification of SCLC based on the expression of lineage-specific transcription or co-transcription factors, including ASCL1, NEUROD1, POU2F3, and YAP1, was recently proposed. We attempted to characterize these 4 SCLC subtypes using integrated immunohistochemical studies, which will provide insights into the molecular characteristics of these subtypes and clarify the inter- and intratumor heterogeneities of SCLC.