Reduction of FHIT gene expression in primary lung cancer / 中国肺癌杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To investigate the role of FHIT (fragile histidine triad) gene in oncogenesis and progression of human lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of FHIT gene was detected in 166 lung cancer samples and 37 benign pulmonary lesion tissues as control by immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rate of FHIT expression in lung cancer tissues was 63.03%±26.41%, which was significantly lower than that in tisssues adjacent to cancer (83.74%±17.46%) (P < 0.01 ), and both positive rates in cancer tissues and tissues adjacent to cancer were significantly lower than that in benign lesion tissues (92.98%±5.56%)(P < 0.01). The expression level of FHIT gene was closely related to histological classification, cancer cell differentiation, P TNM stages and lymph node involvement in lung cancer patients (P < 0.05). The positive rate of FHIT expression in smoking lung cancer patients was remarkably lower than that in non smoking ones ( 55.14% ±27.55% vs 71.93%±22.05%, P < 0.01). The postoperative survival time in patients with high FHIT expression was significantly longer than those with low expression (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Reduction of FHIT gene expression might be associated with the oncogenesis and progression of human lung cancer; Smoking may be one of the important reasons of reduction of FHIT gene expression in lung cancer patients.</p>