Immunomagnetic Detection of Cancer Cells in Pleural Effusion in Lung Cancer Patients as Additional Staging and Prognostic Tool

Pleural effusion in lung cancer patients is one of the symptoms of metastatic disease that is inoperable and cannot be treated. Identification of cancer cells in the pleural effusion of lung cancer patients is a cytological test and serves as an initial diagnosis. These cells can then be used to prepare a cell block for staining and further tests.

In some research despite clinical suspicions, the cytological diagnosis is negative, due to the specimen containing too few cells or damage to the cells whilst the specimen is processed. A new method of identifying rare cells in a fluid is by immunomagnetic separation. Using this method, an antigen binds to proteins in the cell wall that are unique to tumor cells. When the fluid is passed through a magnetic field, separation occurs of the cells with the magnetic tags from the remainder of the cells. The separated cells can then be stained or cultured.

The currently approved method of immunomagnetic detection has been approved for clinical use in patients with breast cancer, cancer of the intestines and prostate cancer. An Israeli Biotech company has developed an advanced technology that allows identification of a larger number of cells without causing morphological damage to the cells.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the technique of immunomagnetic separation in pleural effusion of lung cancer patients in comparison to the cytological tests. In the future it is hoped that a larger number of patient samples will be included and further characterization of the cells will be possible to be compared to the clinical and cytological characteristics.