BACKGROUNDTo investigate the relation between FLIP expression and apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSFLIP expression was examined in forty-eight paraffin-embeded NSCLC samples and 16 benign pulmonary disease tissues by immunohistochemistry method. Apoptosis of NSCLC cells was detected by TUNEL technique.

RESULTSThe positive rate of FLIP expression in NSCLC was 83.33%(40/48), which was significantly higher than that in benign pulmonary disease tissues (P < 0.01). The expression level of FLIP was closely related to TNM stages and lymph node involvement, but not to histological classification and cell differentiation. No correlation was observed between the expression of FLIP and apoptosis index of tumor cells (r=-0.211,P > 0.05 ).

CONCLUSIONSOverexpression of FLIP may be involved in the progression of NSCLC, but its expression may not be related to cell apoptosis in NSCLC.