ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#Human U three protein 14a (hUTP14a) facilitates tumorigenesis through promoting p53 and Rb degradation as well as enhancing c-Myc oncogenic activity. Moreover, hUTP14a expression is up-regulated in human hepatocellular cancer and colorectal cancer tissues. In this study, the expression of hUTP14a in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues was evaluated by immunohistochemistry staining (IHC). The relationship between hUTP14a expression levels and the clinical characteristics of the NSCLC patients were analyzed.@*METHODS@#Lung cancer tissues and the adjacent non-cancerous tissues were collected from 123 cases of NSCLC patients including 53 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 70 cases of adenocarcinoma (ADC), who had accepted surgical resection at Peking University Third Hospital from May 2003 to April 2006. The expression level of hUTP14a was determined by IHC in human NSCLC tissues and the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The associations between hUTP14a expression and the clinical pathological variables including gender, age, tumor size, histological type, differentiation degree and clinical pathological stage were analyzed using the Pearson's χ2 test.@*RESULTS@#The expression rate of hUTP14a in NSCLC tissues was significantly higher than that in the non-cancerous tissues (37.4% vs. 0, P<0.001). The expressions of hUTP14a in lung ADC and SCC were 48.6% and 20.6%, respectively. The expression rate of hUTP14a in both lung ADC and SCC was significantly higher than that in the adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P<0.001). In addition, the expression rate of hUTP14a in lung ADC was significantly higher than that in SCC (χ2=8.66, P=0.003). Furthermore, the expression rate of hUTP14a in the late pTNM stage of SCC was significantly higher than that in the early pTNM stage of SCC while hUTP14a expression level was not associated with pTNM stage of ADC. No correlation was found between hUTP14a expression and the other clinical pathologic features of the patients.@*CONCLUSION@#Expression of hUTP14a was up-regulated in NSCLC tissues and was correlated with pTNM stage of SCC, suggesting that hUTP14a might possess a potential as a candidate marker for the early diagnosis screening of NSCLC.