Leathem A J, Brooks S A
Lancet. 1987 May 9;1(8541):1054-6. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(87)90482-x.
A new approach for predicting long-term survival of breast-cancer patients is the detection of carbohydrate expression in paraffin-embedded sections of the primary tumour. The binding of a lectin (HPA), derived from the albumin gland of the Roman snail, Helix pomatia, to N-acetyl-galactosaminyl oligosaccharides appears valuable in assessing long-term prognosis. The clinical progress of 179 patients, followed-up for 15-20 years, was related to staining of paraffin sections of their primary breast cancers by HPA. All patients had had mastectomy but were not stratified by pathology or treatment. There were significant differences, in premenopausal patients, between groups with and without HPA staining in both time to first recurrence and survival time. HPA binding provides an extra tool for staging to aid decisions in early adjuvant treatment, with the advantage of being applicable to routinely fixed paraffin-embedded material.
预测乳腺癌患者长期生存的一种新方法是检测原发性肿瘤石蜡包埋切片中的碳水化合物表达。源自罗马蜗牛（Helix pomatia）白蛋白腺的凝集素（HPA）与N-乙酰半乳糖胺寡糖的结合在评估长期预后方面似乎很有价值。对179例患者进行了15至20年的随访，其临床进展与原发性乳腺癌石蜡切片经HPA染色的情况相关。所有患者均接受了乳房切除术，但未按病理或治疗进行分层。在绝经前患者中，HPA染色阳性和阴性组在首次复发时间和生存时间方面存在显著差异。HPA结合为分期提供了一种额外的工具，有助于早期辅助治疗的决策，其优点是适用于常规固定的石蜡包埋材料。
