OBJECTIVETo study the different expressions of glypican-3 in lung squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma and explore the association of glypican-3 with the prognosis of the patients.

METHODSGlypican-3 expression was detected immunohistochemically in the tumor tissues and adjacent tissues from 48 cases of lung squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used for survival analysis of the patients.

RESULTSGlypican-3 expression was detected in the tumor tissues in 29.2% (14/48) of the cases, but not in the adjacent tissues. Of the 22 patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma, 12 (54.5%) showed positive glypican-3 expression in the tumor tissue, a rate significantly higher than that in patients with lung adenocarcinoma [7.7% (2/26), P<0.01]. In all the glypican-3-positive cases, the tumor tissues showed stronger glypican-3 expression in cases with lymph node metastasis or poor tumor differentiation. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis did not indicate a significant correlation of glypican-3 expression with the prognosis of the lung cancer patients.

CONCLUSIONPatients with lung squamous cell carcinoma have higher glypican-3 expressions in the tumor tissues than those with lung adenocarcinoma, suggesting the value of glypican-3 protein as a potential marker to detect lung squamous cell carcinoma.