BACKGROUNDBecause invasion and metastasis of cancer threaten seriously human's life, it is of more important clinical significance to understand and evaluate the biologic behavior of can-(cer) correctly. Abnormal expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin plays important roles in invasion and metastasis of cancer. The objective of this study is to investigate their expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to find out their correlation with histological type, cell differentiation, metastasis and prognosis of NSCLC.

METHODSThe expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin was detected in 129 NSCLC tissues by high sensitive S-P immunohistochemical method.

RESULTSThe abnormal expression rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin was 62.0% and 65.1% respectively. The abnormal expression rate of E-cadherin in squamous cell carcinoma was much higher than that in adenocarcinoma (P < 0.05). The abnormal expression rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin in poorly differentiated cells was significantly higher than that in well and moderately differentiated cells (P < 0.05, P < 0.05). Stage III/IV NSCLC showed markedly higher abnormal expression rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin than stage I/II NSCLC did (P < 0.01, P < 0.01). The abnormal expression rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin in patients with lymphatic metastasis was significantly higher than that in those without lymphatic metastasis (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The mean survival duration and 5-year survival rate in patients with normal E-cadherin and β-catenin expression were remarkably higher than those in patients with abnormal expression (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSThe abnormal expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin is closely related to histological type, differentiation and metastasis in NSCLC. Detection of their expression might be helpful to predict prognosis of NSCLC.