BACKGROUNDTo study the relationship between expression of endostatin and clinical and pathophysiological characteristics in the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSThe expression of endostatin was detected in 46 lung cancer tissues and paracancerous lung tissues, 14 benign pulmonary lesion tissues as control by immunohistochemical staining (LSAB method).

RESULTSThe expression of endostatin in lung cancer tissues (84.91%±7.65%) was significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues (63.70%±12.45%) and benign pulmonary lesion tissues (40.29%±15.01%) (P < 0.01); The expression of endostatin was closely related to the size of primary tumor, distant metastasis of the cancer, P-TNM stages and cell differentiation of lung cancer (P < 0.05), but not to the histological classification, lymph node status, location of the tumor, smoking or not, age and sex of the patients with lung cancer (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThe expression of endostatin in NSCLC cancer tissues might be helpful to evaluate the biological behavior of lung cancer.