title: Prognostic relevance of c-Myc and caspase-3 for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: This analysis attempted to ascertain whether combining the expression of c-Myc and caspase-3 can improve the available prognostic information for patients with non-small cell lung carcinomas. To this purpose, the expression of c-Myc and caspase-3 was determined in 128 cases of non-small cell lung carcinoma. The median survival time for patients with c-Myc-negative carcinomas was 89 weeks; it was only 43 weeks for patients with c-Myc-positive tumors (p=0.03). The estimated increased relative risk for patients with c-Myc-positive tumors was 1.6. The median survival time for patients with caspase-3-negative carcinomas was 41 weeks while patients with caspase-3-positive carcinomas survived for 79 weeks (p=0.06). The relative risk for patients with caspase-3-negative tumors was 1.5. A significant inverse relationship between the expression of c-Myc and caspase-3 was observed (p=0.04). To determine whether the combination of c-Myc and caspase-3 expression has a higher prognostic significance, patients were grouped based on their expressions of both variables. Patients with c-Myc-negative and caspase-3-positive tumors had the most favorable prognosis (102 weeks) while c-Myc-positive and caspase-3-negative carcinomas had the most unfavorable prognosis (22 weeks; p=0.01).
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncological Diagnostics and Therapy, German Cancer Research Center, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Volm
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koomagi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / Q000032:analysis*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc; C505407:CASP3 protein, human; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases