title: New prognostic indicator for non-small-cell lung cancer, quantitation of thymidylate synthase by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: Thymidylate synthase (TS) is an enzyme that catalyzes an important DNA biosynthesis process. The gene expression of TS has not been reported in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. To clarify the correlation between TS mRNA levels and clinicopathological features of NSCLC, we examined 70 Stage I and II NSCLC patients for intra-tumoral expression of TS using TaqMan reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay and immunohistochemistry methods. We also investigated the TS promoter 28 bp polymorphism in 48 cancer tissues using PCR amplification of genomic DNA. Lung cancer tissue showed higher TS mRNA levels than normal lung tissue (Mann-Whitney U-tests; p = 0.0020). Further, TS mRNA expression was correlated with immunohistochemical TS expression (p = 0.029). We obtained 2 different DNA fragments, which indicated triple-repeat (3R) and double-repeat (2R) type alleles. Cancer tissues with the 3R/3R genotype showed significantly higher TS mRNA levels as compared to those with other genotypes (p = 0.0019). The TS genotype was also correlated with immunohistochemical TS expression (chi(2) test; p = 0.0079). The disease-free survival of the low TS mRNA level group was significantly better than those with high TS mRNA levels (log-rank test; p = 0.010), however, there were no significant differences found by immunohistochemical evaluation (p = 0.34) or TS genotype analysis (p = 0.11). A multivariate analysis revealed that high TS mRNA levels independently contributed to disease-free survival. The quantitation of TS mRNA levels is clinically more sensitive and useful for determining the prognosis of Stage I and II NSCLC patients than an immunohistochemical evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, E1, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shintani
authors.forename: Mitsunori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: Hirohisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirabayashi
authors.forename: Hisaichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iuchi
authors.forename: Katsuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kido
authors.forename: Shinichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: Hikaru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuda
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015996:Survival Rate; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase