OBJECTIVETo study the correlation of tenascin-c (TN-C) degradation with relapse and/or metastasis in stage-I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in order to search for a potential biomarker for predicting recurrence, and also to investigate the molecular mechanism of TN-C degradation. Methods The fragment of TN-C in 63 surgically treated stage-I NSCLC was detected by Western blotting, and the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) was also examined by gelatin zymography.

RESULTSTN-C degradation fragment was positively detected in 12 of 63 patients, and 9 of these 12 patients (75.0%) were found to develope recurrence during follow-up. The recurrence-free survival at 4 years was 28.1% in patients with positive TN-C degradation versus 82.1% in those without (P < 0.001), and which was 76.6% at 10 years in the patients without TN-C degradation. The activity of MMP-2 in the patients with positive TN-C degradation was also found to be significantly higher than that in the patients without (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONTenascin-c degradation fragment may be a reliable biomarker for predicting recurrence and/or metastasis in the early NSCLC, and matrix metalloproteinase-2 may be a responsible proteinase for degradation of tenascin-c.