The use of vimentin antibodies in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma.

An immunohistochemical investigation of vimentin, an intermediate filament, was carried out on formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections of 44 malignant mesotheliomas of the pleura and 24 pulmonary adenocarcinomas, in order to assess its value in differential diagnosis. Seventy-five percent of the malignant mesotheliomas showed positive staining for vimentin. An unexpected finding was the presence of vimentin in 46% of the pulmonary adenocarcinomas. In either case there was no correlation between the presence of vimentin and the histological types or grades of differentiation. The overall level of vimentin staining was significantly greater in the malignant mesotheliomas than in the pulmonary adenocarcinomas but no single antibody dilution was found to provide clear cut separation of the two groups. Vimentin does not appear to be a simple discriminatory marker of malignant mesothelioma.