Expression and clinical significance of glucose transporter 1 mRNA in bronchial brushing liquid-based cytology specimens from patients with and without lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) mRNA expression in bronchial brushing specimens from patients with lung cancer.

METHODS

GLUT1 mRNA levels were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in SurePath(TM) liquid-based cytology bronchial brushing specimens from patients with lung cancer (n=76) and benign lung disease (n=154).

RESULTS

Compared with patients with benign disease and compared with cytology, GLUT1 mRNA was found significantly more frequently in patients with all carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, adenocarcinomas and small cell carcinomas, as well as central, peripheral and diffuse carcinomas (P<0.01). Minor differences were noted in GLUT1 mRNA and cytology results between histological types and tumour location but were not statistically significant. The diagnostic performance of RT-PCR analysis of GLUT1 mRNA was significantly higher than cytology in terms of sensitivity (97.4 ± 3.6% versus 65.8 ± 10.7) and negative predictive value (98.6 ± 1.9%, versus 85.6 ± 5.1%) but specificity (90.9 ± 4.5%) and positive predictive value (84.1 ± 7.6%) were lower than cytology (100%).

CONCLUSIONS

Using liquid-based cytology, RT-PCR can be performed on bronchial brushing specimens to detect GLUT1 mRNA expression, and may be a useful adjunct to cytology diagnosis. It was more sensitive than cytology but its lower specificity should be taken into account.