IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL REACTIVITY IN MESOTHELIOMA AND ADENOCARCINOMA - ASTEPWISE LOGISTIC-REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Histological sections from 103 malignant mesotheliomas and 43 adenocar cinoma metastases in pleural biopsies were investigated for reactivity against a panel of 11 different antibodies. The size of the material allowed the evaluation by stepwise logistic regression analysis, which selected five parameters of major importance: vimentin reactivity in epithelial cells, reactivity to low-molecular-weight keratins in fibro us cells, strong membrane accentuation of EMA reactivity, and lack of reactivity to LeuM1 and BerEp4. Three of these criteria were sufficien t to identify a mesothelioma with high specificity and with a sensitiv ity of approximately 70%. Whilst the monoclonal anti-CEA tested was th e most valuable single parameter, it did not add any diagnostic inform ation to the combination of criteria selected by the stepwise logistic regression analysis. However, this antibody can be used to exclude mo st of the adenocarcinomas from further analysis with the more extensiv e panel.