Clinical significance of nm23 expression in resected pathologic-stage I, non-small cell lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
Clinical significance of the status of nm23 gene, originally identified as an antimetastatic gene, in non-small cell lung cancer remains unestablished, whereas many clinical studies have demonstrated that reduced nm23 expression is correlated with tumor progression and poor prognosis in a variety of malignant tumors such as breast carcinoma.


METHODS
nm23 expression was examined immunohistochemically in a total of 117 patients with completely resected pathologic stage I non-small cell lung cancer.


RESULTS
nm23 expression was positive in 73 (62.4%) patients, and there was no correlation between nm23 expression and age, sex, performance status, pathologic T factor, histologic type, or degree of cancer cell differentiation. The 5-year survival rates of nm23-positive and nm23-negative patients were 79.7% and 57.8%, respectively, demonstrating a significantly poorer prognosis in nm23-negative patients (p = 0.013), which was confirmed by a multivariate analysis. nm23 was not correlated with the incidence of apoptosis, proliferative activity, or p53 status.


CONCLUSIONS
nm23 expression was a significant factor for predicting a favorable prognosis, suggesting antimetastatic potential of the nm23 gene in non-small cell lung cancer.
Katakura
Hiromichi
H
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
Tanaka
Fumihiro
F
Oyanagi
Hiroki
H
Miyahara
Ryo
R
Yanagihara
Kazuhiro
K
Otake
Yosuke
Y
Wada
Hiromi
H
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D017209:Apoptosis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000737:chemistry / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002455:Cell Division; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000032:analysis*; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D014157:Transcription Factors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C517938:NME1 protein, human; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins