IS THE BINDING OF THE LECTIN HELIX-POMATIA AGGLUTININ (HPA) OF PROGNOSTIC RELEVANCE IN TUMORS OF THE UPPER AERODIGESTIVE TRACT

The lectin Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA) has been used as a prognosti c indicator in a number of clinical studies including those of breast, colorectal and gastric cancer, Binding of HPA to tissue sections was associated,vith a bad prognosis indicating that the carbohydrate resid ue recognized by this lectin is linked to metastasis, In order to inve stigate whether HPA binding is also of prognostic relevance in squamou s cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract, 53 tumours of this region were stained with HPA, Almost all tumours (95%) bound HPA to v arious degrees and hence HPA binding is of no prognostic relevance in this group of tumours, These findings indicate a fundamental differenc e in the role of carbohydrate residues in metastasis between squamous cell carcinoma (as in our study) and in rumours derived from glandular tissues such as breast, colon and stomach.