BACKGROUNDTo study the relationship between human thymosin β4 (Tβ4 )expression and biological factors regarding invasion, metastasis and prognosis of human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSTβ4 expression was detected in samples of 76 paraffin-embedded specimens with the neighboring noncancerous tissue using anti-Tβ4 IgY antibody (primary antibody) by immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between Tβ4 expression and the clinicopthological factors was analyzed by Chi-square test, multivariate analysis and Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTSIn immunoreactive cells, staining was mainly located in cytoplasma. Human Tβ4 expression was high positive in lung cancer tissues (76.3%, 58/76) while low positive in normal lung tissues. Tβ4 expression was positively associated with TNM stage (r=0.239, P=0.032), lymphatic metastasis (r=0.243, P=0.029) and venous metastasis (r=0.224, P=0.045).A negative correlation was found between Tβ4 expression and cell differentiation (r=-0.368, P=0.002). Patients with high Tβ4 expression had a worse prognosis than those with low Tβ4 expression (P < 0.05)

CONCLUSIONSLung cancer has overexpression of Tβ4, which is closely related to TNM stages, cell differentiation, metastasis of the cancer and prognosis of the patients with lung cancer. Detection of Tβ4 expression in lung cancer tissues might be helpful to predict prognosis of patients with lung cancer.