J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007;133:86-87
© 2007 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery
Discussion
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Dr Michael Weyant
(Denver, Colo). Dr Hammoud, congratulations on your article. I enjoyed reading it, and I appreciate you sending it to me well ahead of the date of this meeting.
You and your coauthors have found a unique biomarker identifying and isolating malignant cells in esophageal tissue. I think findings such as these are important not only because of the ability to mark a cell but also because they can eventually provide some insight into the biology of the cancer cell itself. You also were able to show us a method that is applicable immediately globally to all pathologists, and I think that is important. But I have a few questions for you.
First, given that a pathologist on a routine hematoxylin and eosin stain can identify a cancer cell on the basis of its nuclear morphology, and you have basically to have the presence of the cancer cell to identify it, how is your technique an actual improvement over those already known methods?
Dr Hammoud. I alluded to this earlier. I think a lot of times the differentiation between high-grade dysplasia and invasive carcinoma is difficult and is pathologist dependent. I think the greatest utility right now of having this antibody is in exactly those scenarios. I agree wholeheartedly that you don’t need this antibody to diagnose cancer, at least not on a biopsy or a tissue specimen, but I think in those difficult cases it . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Copyright © 2007 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
