Expression of survivin and its correlation with apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer / 中国肺癌杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To investigate the expression of survivin and its relation with apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Survivin expression was examined in sixty paraffin-embedded NSCLC samples and 16 benign pulmonary disease tissues by immunohistochemistry methods.Apoptosis of NSCLC cells was detected by TUNEL technique.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Survivin was expressed in 38 of 60 (63.3%) NSCLC tissues.In contrast, benign pulmonary disease tissues did not express survivin. The expression of survivin protein was closely related to TNM stages (P < 0.05), lymph node involvement (P < 0.05) and cell differentiation (P < 0.01), but not to histological classification, gender and ages (P > 0.05). A correlation coefficient test showed a negative correlation between the AI and survivin expression (r=-0.231,P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Apoptosis inhibition caused by abnormal survivin expression may participate in the oncogenesis and progression of NSCLC. The over-expression of survivin suggest the bad prognosis in NSCLC. Survivin gene may be indentified as a potential therapeutic target in NSCLC.</p>