Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer 2002;5(4):260-262

doi:10.3779/j.issn.1009-3419.2002.04.06

Expression of E-cadherin in non-small cell lung cancer: correlation with lymphatic metastasis and prognosis.

Xiaofeng CHEN 1 ; Jiaan DING ; Wen GAO ; Xianghua YI ; Haifeng WANG ; Hua LI

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Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

BACKGROUNDTo explore the expression level of E-cadherin gene and its relationship with lymph node metastasis and prognosis in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSThe expression of E-cadherin protein was detected in 138 human NSCLC tissues by immunohistochemistry, and 23 normal lung tissues as control.

RESULTSThe positive rate of E-cadherin expression (41.48%) in lung cancer tissues was significantly lower than that in normal lung tissues (73.12%) (P < 0.05). E-cadherin expression rate was closely related to lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) and TNM stages of lung cancer (P < 0.05), but not to the size of the primary tumor (T), differentiation of cancer cell, histological classification and history of smoking (P > 0.05). The 5-year survival rate of the patients with high expression of E-cadherin ( > 40%) was significantly higher than those with low expression (≤40%) (P < 0.05 ).

CONCLUSIONSDetection of E cadherin expression may be helpful to predict the prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.