Neuroendocrine markers in adenocarcinomas: an investigation of 356 cases.

AIM: To investigate the incidence of neuroendocrine (NE) cells and their hormone products in adenocarcinomas and evaluate their significance in clinical pathology and prognosis.

METHODS: By using tissue sectioning and immunocyto-chemistry, 356 cases of adenocarcinomas were studied to examine the presence of chromorgranin and polypeptide hormones in adenocarcinoma samples from our hospital.

RESULTS: The positive rate of NE cells and hormone products was 41.5 % (54/130) and 59.3 % (32/54), respectively in large intestinal adenocarcinoma cases; 39.6 % (38/96) and 36.8 % (14/38), respectively in gastric cancer cases; 38.1 % (8/21) and 50.0 % (4/8), respectively in prostatic cancer cases; 21.0 % (17/81) and 17.6 % (3/17), respectively in breasr cancer cases; 17.9 % (5/28) and 60.0 % (3/5), respectively in pancreatic cancer cases. Among carcinomas of large intestine, pancreas and breast, the highly differentiated NE cell numbers were higher than the poorly differentiated NE cell numbers; while the gastric carcinoma cases had more poorly differentiated NE cells than highly differentiated NE cells. The higher detection rate of NE cells and their hormone products, the higher 5-year survival rate among the large intestine cancer cases.

CONCLUSION: Close correlation was observed between NE cells and their hormone products with the cancer differentiations. For colorectal carcinomas, there is a close correlation of the presence of NE cells and their hormone products with the tumor staging and prognosis.