Classifying Lung Adenocarcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma using RNA-Seq Data.
Lung cancer has the second highest estimated new case rates and the highest estimated death rates for both males and females. According to American Cancer Society, the estimated number of new cases in 2015 are 115,610 men and 105,590 women which account for about 14% and 13% of all new cancer cases for males and females respectively.
The estimated deaths are 86,380 men and 71,660 women which account for about 28% and 26% of all deaths associated with cancer for males and females respectively. Lung cancer can be classified as small cell
lung carcinoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma. NSCLC weighs more than 80% of all lung cancer.
NSCLC can be sub-classified into Lung squamous cell carcinoma, Lung adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. Approximately 20% of all lung cancers are LUSC; it has the worst prognosis. About 40% of all NSCLC cancers are LUAD.2 Despite the differences in prognosis, subtypes of NSCLC have been treated by similar strategies.
The treatment effects vary in LUSC and LUAD patients. With the rapid development of the targeted therapies for NSCLC, more efficient treatments are available for both NSCLC subtypes. However, to choose treatments, especially targeted therapies and combination of interventions, we need more accurate sub-typing between them.
However, due to the drawbacks of HE staining, such as unclear structures in tumors and small biopsies with a limited number of tumor cells, it is difficult to make a precise diagnosis between LUAD and LUSC. Since the molecular profiling is different between LUAD and LUSC, Immunohistochemical staining can help to diagnose between LUAD and LUSC.
