Frequency and clinical significance of beta-subunit human chorionic gonadotropin expression in non-small cell lung cancer patients

Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), a classic trophoblastic marker, has bee n found recently in many nontrophoblastic tumors. Previously we have found elevated serum beta HCG levels in 14% of small cell lung cancer patients. T he aim of the present study was to assess the frequency and clinical signif icance of beta HCG expression in non-small cell lung tumors and in the sera of patients. 153 nonsmall cell lung cancer patients entered into this stud y. The control group consisted of 85 patients with benign lung diseases. Se rum beta HCG elevation exceeding 5 mIU/ml was found in 3.5% of patients wit h benign lung diseases and in 12% of lung cancer patients (p = 0.03). Tumor analysis revealed the presence of beta HCG positivity in 28% of resected l ung specimens. beta HCG positivity was found more often in adenocarcinoma t han in squamous cell lung carcinoma both in tissue and in serum, the differ ences being not significant. Elevated serum beta HCG values were found more frequently in stage IV patients than in the remainder (p = 0.03). Response to chemotherapy (partial or minor response) was obtained more often in the patients with normal serum beta HCG than in those with serum beta HCG elev ation (p = 0.03). We suppose that the ability to produce beta HCG is a rare but important biologic feature of lung carcinomas combined to some extent with chemoresistance.