Gli-2 expression in thymic tumor tissues and its relationship with Ki-67 / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the expression of Gli-2 protein and nuclear proliferation marker Ki-67 in human thymic tu-mors, as well as its relationship with clinicopathological features and prognosis. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was per-formed to determine the expressions of Gli-2 and Ki-67 in 64 thymic tumor cases, in which 9 were type A, 6 were type AB, 11 were type B1, 22 were type B2, and 16 were type C. Results:1) Positive expression rates of Gli-2 in types A, AB, B1, B2, and C thymomas were 1/9 (11.11%), 2/6 (33.33%), 2/11 (18.18%), 5/22 (22.73%), and 13/16 (81.25%), respectively. Statistically significant differences existed in the two sets of data (P0.05). 3) The positive labeling indexes of Ki-67 in invasive and non-inva-sive thymomas were 7.14 ± 6.99 and 15.24 ± 9.13, respectively. The differences between both thymomas were statistically significant (P<0.05). 4) A positive correlation existed in the expression of Ki-67 and Gli-2 in thymomas. Five-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate was lower in the Gli-2 positive group (56.5%, 13/23) than in the negative group (92.7%, 38/41). The Ki-67-positive group (61.5%, 16/26) also showed a lower five-year PFS than that in the negative group (92.1%, 35/38), with statistically significant differences be-tween the two groups (P<0.05). Multivariate Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis indicated that the Gli-2-positive group ex-pression, Ki-67-positive group expression, and invasion of the pleura were independent prognostic factors of thymic tumors. Conclu-sionThe expression of Gli-2 and Ki-67 showed a positive correlation with thymic tumors. Detecting the combined expression of Gli-2 and Ki-67 may elucidate the clinicopathological features and prognoses of patients with thymic tumors.