Anti-HuC and -HuD autoantibodies are differential sero-diagnostic markers for small cell carcinoma from large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung.

Aiming to identify novel sero-diagnostic markers for neuroendocrine carcinomas of the lung, the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-immunoblot method was used to analyze tumor-associated autoantibodies in patients with small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC). Several autoantigens were revealed and anti-HuC autoantibody was detected only in sera of SCLC patients. Since Hu family proteins including HuC are well-known causes of paraneoplastic encephalomyelitis/sensory neuronopathy (PEM/SN), the expression of HuC as well as HuD mRNAs and their proteins was studied in 11 lung cancer cell lines. The expression of HuC and HuD mRNAs and proteins was only detected in SCLC- and LCNEC-derived cells. To validate the existence of anti-HuC and -HuD auto-antibodies, we studied a large number of sera including those from lung cancer patients employing dot blot analysis. Anti-HuC and -HuD autoantibodies were detected only in SCLC cases with or without PEM/SN, and not in the sera of LCNEC patients. The mechanism leading to different anti-HuC and -HuD autoantibody production between SCLC and LCNEC is unclear; however, the results from the present and previous studies suggest that anti-HuC and -HuD auto-antibodies are novel differential sero-diagnostic markers for SCLC from LCNEC.