title: Clinical significance of heparanase activity in primary resected non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: Clinicopathological significances of heparanase activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were investigated by analyzing 76 resected specimens of NSCLC. Heparanase activities in NSCLC were significantly higher than non-cancerous lung tissues (P < 0.0001). The heparanase activities of NSCLC were significantly higher in larger diameter tumors (P = 0.0141) or with metastasis to ipsilateral mediastinal lymph nodes (P = 0.0004). The activities of heparanase in primary tumors were increased significantly according to the pathological stage of the progression of the disease (P =0.0009). Among the clinicopathological parameters, histological cell type and evidence of ipsilateral lymph node metastasis showed a significant association with elevated heparanase activities, whereas age, degree of differentiation and tumor diameter did not. Kaplan-Meier curves for overall and disease-free survival demonstrated a significant difference between patients with elevated and non-elevated heparanase activity by log-rank test (P = 0.0145 and 0.0002, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed heparanase activity was an independent factor to influence disease-free survival in our study. These results suggest that heparanase activity could be used as a prognostic indicator for postoperative patients with NSCLC and heparanase might be a promising molecular target for treatment of NSCLC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric and Respiratory Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Seiryo-machi 1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8574, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ebihara
authors.forename: Tatsuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okazaki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asada
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Hidetada
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D046508:Culture Techniques; D005260:Female; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012494:Sampling Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D000099175:Heparanase
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005966:Glucuronidase; D000099175:Heparanase