Abstract:
Abstract Pleural Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) is a fatal
disease that has been associated with asbestos exposure.
Differential diagnosis between the pleural infiltration of pulmonary
carcinomas and MM is rather difficult particularly for
epitheloid type mesothelioma.We aimed to investigate the
utility of CD90, a cancer stem cell marker, in the differential
diagnosis of MM and lung carcinoma, its prognostic significance
and compare its value with that of Calretinin. Ninety
pathology specimens including MM (n:30), pulmonary adenocarcinoma
(n:30) and pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma
(n:30) were used in this study. Immunohistochemical
comparision of CD 90 and Calretinin was made in all groups.
Calretinin was positive in 20 cases with MM (64.5 %), and
was negative in 10 (32.3 %). CD 90 was positive in 25 of these
cases (80 %) and negative in 5 (16 %). On the other hand
pulmonary adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas
showed positivity with CD90, 63,6 % and 73 %, respectively.
We think that CD 90 has no place in the differential diagnosis
between mesothelioma and pulmonary carcinoma because of
the low specificity in spite of the high sensitivity.
