Résumé
Objective:To detect the expression of maternal embryo leucine zipper kinase (MELK) in lung adenocarcinoma, and to explore the clinical prognosis of MELK and lung adenocarcinoma, andto explore the possibility of MELK as a potential biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma.Methods:The mRNA level of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer was analyzed by bioinformatics methods, and the relationship between its expression and the survival rate of patients with lung adenocarcinoma was analyzed. The clinicopathological data of 70 patients with lung adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical treatment were retrospectively analyzed. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression level of MELK protein in lung adenocarcinoma tissue and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer, and to analyze its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.Results:The results of bioinformatics analysis showed that MELK mRNA was significantly highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissue, and was significantly correlated with the overall survival rate ( P=0.009) and disease-free survival rate ( P=0.039) of patients. Immunohistochemical results showed that the expression of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma tissue was significantly higher than that in normal tissues adjacent to the cancer. The high expression of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma tissue was related to tumor size ( P=0.015) and tumor stage ( P=0.006), but not related to age, gender, smoking, tumor differentiation, and lymph node metastasis (all P>0.05). Conclusions:MELK is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and indicates a poor prognosis, and its expression level is related to the tumor stage of lung adenocarcinoma. MELK may serve as a new prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic targetfor lung adenocarcinoma.