Biomedical Research

Background: Lung cancer is a major cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common pathogen found among them and has demonstrated an increasing resistance to various antibiotics. Early detection of S. pneumoniae and appropriate antibiotic therapy is clinically warranted to improve clinical outcome of the patients and prevent drug resistance. The “RAPIRUNHS ® S. pneumoniae HS”, an inexpensive, easy and rapid detection kit was used for the detection of S. pneumoniae. This study aims to evaluate a rapid novel method of detection of S. pneumoniae antigen, to determine the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of S. pneumoniae isolated from the respiratory tract of lung cancer patients with pneumonia infection.

Methods: Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL) specimens, collected from 183 lung cancer patients with pneumonia were cultured for the presence of bacterial growth and antibiotic resistance was determined by minimum inhibitory concentration assay. The S. pneumoniae antigen and DNA were detected using RAPIRUN-HS® and Real-Time PCR respectively.

Results: S. pneumoniae (68.1%) was the predominant organism isolated (p<0.05) from the samples. Real-Time PCR showed the high sensitivity of 82.6% however, the RAPIRUN-HS® test was highly specific showing specificity rate of 79.1% compared to PCR. Fifty-four (58.7%) isolates were found to be resistance to erythromycin (p<0.05). Thirty-two (17.5%) patients died in this study.

Conclusion: S. pneumoniae was the predominant organism present in pneumonia patients with lung cancer and RAPIRUN-HS® test is highly specific in detecting S. pneumoniae.

Author(s): Qin Wang, Zhenzhen Jin, Huanfu Niu, Chunna Yu, Zefeng Wei, Aijun Yang, Xuenan Wang
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