ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the expression of negative costimulatroy molecule B7-H4 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and its relationship with the clinical features of NSCLC. Methods: Fifty-two NSCLC specimens from pa-tients who were pathologically diagnosed in our hospital during January 2008 to April 2009 were included in the present study. B7-H4 expression and infiltration of CD3~+ T cells in NSCLC tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. The correlation between B7-H4 expression, CD3~+ T infiltration, and the clinical features of NSCLC was studied. Results: The positive rate of B7-H4 in 52 NSCLC tissues was 48.08% (25/52), and B7-H4 expression in normal lung tissues was neg-ative or low (P <0.05). B7-H4 expression was positively correlated with the clinical tumor stages and lymph node metas-tasis of NSCLC (P < 0.05), and negatively correlated with tumor infiltration of CD3~+ T cells (P < 0.05), but had no re-lationship with clinicopathologie parameters of NSCLC (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Negative costimulatroy molecule B7-H4 may play important roles in the development of NSCLC. Positive expression of BT-H4 is correlated with the clinical tumor stages and lymph node metastasis of NSCLC, which provides a foundation for diagnosis and therapy of NSCLC.