Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule Is an Accurate Target for Fluorescence Guided Imaging of Lymph Nodes.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Lymph node (LN) excision is critical in oncologic surgery to provide important therapeutic and diagnostic information. LN evaluation helps in staging cancers, predicting prognosis and improving survival. The ultimate wish of a surgical oncologist would be to localize and dissect all pathologically positive LNs while avoiding the morbidity of removing true negative LNs. The goal of our study was to identify a reliable marker for intraoperative molecular imaging of LNs with cancer cells from non-small cell lung cancer versus a LN without.

Procedures

We identified Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM), a membrane protein normally expressed in epithelial tissues including lung. We performed immunofluorescence staining on human specimens with a conjugated anti-EpCAM m

SUBMITTER: McGovern KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12804259 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature