On univariate analysis no correlation was seen with either MUC1 or MUC3 and any of the clinicopathological variables including tumour grade and stage, vascular invasion and tumour type.
There is a change in the pattern of the membrane associated mucins MUC1 and MUC3, part of which is in keeping with changes described in colorectal neoplasia.
Although there was no correlation of mucin expression with tumor histology, there was a significant decrease in expression of MUC3 and MUC4 with increasing cancer stage (P < 0.05).
This work evaluates the expression in lung cancer of the most well characterized mucin genes (MUC1, MUC2, MUC3) and of the recently described MUC4 in lung tissues, to check a correlation between the expression of any particular gene and this tumor.
In several samples of moderately well-differentiated colon cancer, MUC2 and MUC3 showed distinct patterns of expression, but the expression level of each was reduced compared with levels in normal tissue; there was considerable tumor-to-tumor and cell-to-cell variability using both mucin antibodies and complementary DNA probes.