Clinical significance and prognostic value of the expression of LRP16 gene in lung cancer / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of LRP16 gene in lung cancer, and explore its clinicopathological significance. Methods Fresh resected tissues from 54 patients with primary lung cancer were collected and the clinicopathological data were gathered. The expression of LRP16 protein in cancer tissues and the matched normal tissues were determined by Western blotting, and the relationship between LRP16 expression and clinicopathological data was analyzed. It was defined as overexpression when the LRP16 expression of cancer tissues was twice or more higher than that of matched normal tissues. Results The LRP16 was overexpressed in 15 out of 54 patients with lung cancer (27.8%). Among the 23 patients with adencarcinoma, the overexpression of LRP16 was found in 11 cases (47.8%), while in the patients with squamous carcinoma, the overexpression of LRP16 was only found in 4 out of 27 cases (14.8%), and there was a significant difference between the two groups (Pearson test, P=0.0258). Besides, very low expression or non-expression of LRP16 was found in 2 large cell lung cancer and 2 small cell lung cancer. The overexpression rate of LRP16 was 20.0% (2/10) in tumor with diameter less than 3cm and 29.5% (13/44) in tumor with diameter ≥3cm, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (Pearson test, P=0.7224). Conclusions There were significant differences of LRP16 overexpression in cases of adencarcinoma or squamous carcinoma with or without lymphatic metastasis. It is suggested that LRP16 is a tumor-related gene of lung cancer, and may play an important role in molecular staging of lung cancer.