BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVEWnt1 protein is the first factor in Wnt signaling pathway. It has been proven that high expression of Wnt1 protein was associated with malignant proliferation in many tumors. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between Wnt1 protein overexpression, clinicopathologic features and survival in resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSImmunohistochemical staining of Envision was applied to investigate the expression of Wnt1 protein in specimens of 115 NSCLC and 19 benign pulmonary diseases. The correlation between the Wnt1 protein in specimens of 115 NSCLC and clinicopathologic features was analysed with chi2 test, and the correlation between the Wnt1 protein expression and the patient survival was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox regression.

RESULTSThe positive rate ofWnt1 protein in specimens of NSCLC was 62.6%, which was significantly higher than 31.6% of benign pulmonary diseases (chi2 = 4.474, P = 0.034). But it was not correlated with clinicopathologic features. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Log-rank test suggested that patients with Wnt1 protein overexpression had poor prognosis (P = 0.003). And Cox regression suggested Wnt1 protein expression was an independent prognostic factor of NSCLC.

CONCLUSIONThe expression of Wnt1 was remarkably higher in specimens of resected NSCLC than that in benign pulmonary diseases. Overexpression of Wnt1 protein in NSCLC was correlated with prognosis and can be served as an independent prognostic factor of NSCLC.