Napsin A and thyroid transcription factor-1 expression in carcinomas of the lung, breast, pancreas, colon, kidney, thyroid, and malignant mesothelioma

Recent advances in the treatment of pulmonary adenocarcinoma have increased the need for accurate typing of non-small cell carcinomas. Immunohistochemistry for thyroid transcription factor-1 is widely used in the diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinomas because it marks approximately 75% of lung adenocarcinomas and is negative in most squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas of other organs. Napsin A is an aspartic proteinase involved in the maturation of surfactant protein B. It is detected in the cytoplasm of type 2 pneumocytes and alveolar macrophages and is a putative marker for pulmonary adenocarcinomas. We performed immunohistochemistry for napsin A and thyroid transcription factor-1 using tissue microarrays of 95 adenocarcinomas, 48 squamous cell carcinomas, 6 neuroendocrine tumors of the lung, as well as 5 colonic, 31 pancreatic, and 17 breast adenocarcinomas, 38 malignant mesotheliomas, 118 renal cell carcinomas, and 81 thyroid tumors. The tissue microarrays also included 15 different benign tissues. Pulmonary adenocarcinomas were napsin A positive in 79 (83%) of 95 cases compared with 69 (73%) of 95 cases that were thyroid transcription factor-1 positive. There were 13 napsin A-positive/thyroid transcription factor-1-negative and 2 thyroid transcription factor-1-positive/napsin A-negative tumors, increasing the number of cases that were positive with at least one of the markers to 81 (85%) of 95. The limited number of neuroendocrine tumors tested was napsin A negative. All squamous cell carcinomas, adenocarcinomas of the colon, pancreas and breast, and mesotheliomas were negative for both markers. Of the renal tumors, napsin A was positive in most of papillary renal cell carcinomas (79%), about one third (34%) of clear cell renal cell carcinomas, and in a single case of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (3%). In the thyroid, only 2 cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma (5%), both with tall cell morphology, were positive for napsin A, whereas all other papillary and follicular carcinomas were negative. As expected, all renal tumors were thyroid transcription factor-1 negative, and all thyroid tumors, except for one papillary carcinoma, were thyroid transcription factor-1 positive. Napsin A is a sensitive marker for pulmonary adenocarcinoma and is also expressed in a subset of renal cell carcinomas, particularly of the papillary type, as well as in rare cases of papillary thyroid carcinomas. The combined use of napsin A and thyroid transcription factor-1 results in improved sensitivity and specificity for identifying pulmonary adenocarcinoma in primary lung tumors and in a metastatic setting.