Expression of interleukin-4 receptor in non-small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the expression of interleukin-4 receptor (IL-4R) in peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) before and after surgical operation and its clinical significance. Methods: The expression levels of IL-4R in peripheral blood of 84 patients with NSCLC before and after surgical operation as well as in peripheral blood of 40 healthy volunteers were measured by real-time fluorescent quantitative-PCR and ELISA. The expressionsof IL-4R in NSCLC tissues and the corresponding para-cancerous tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. The correlations of IL-4R expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were analyzed. Results: The expression levels of IL-4R in peripheral blood of patients with NSCLC before and after surgical operation were both higher than that of healthy volunteers. The expression level of IL-4R in peripheral blood of patients with NSCLC after surgical operation was lower as compared with that before surgical operation, but which was higher than that of healthy volunteers (all P < 0.05). The positive expression rate of IL-4R in NSCLC tissues was higher than that in the corresponding para-cancerous tissues (P < 0.05). The overall survival and disease-free survival of NSCLC patients with high expression of IL-4R mRNA were poorer than those of the patients with low expression of IL-4R mRNA (both P < 0.001). Tumor stage, recurrence, metastasis and IL-4R mRNA level were independent prognostic factors of NSCLC (all P < 0.05). Conclusion: IL-4R in peripheral blood of patients with NSCLC is up-regulated, and the expression level of IL-4R is one of the independent prognostic factors of NSCLC.