Osteopontin expression and prognostic significance in non-small cell lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The survival rate of non-small cell lung cancer patients is very low, and knowledge of predictors of outcome is inadequate. To improve the curability of lung cancer, we need to identify new specific molecules involved in tumorigenesis and progression. The purpose of this study was to better define the role of osteopontin in non-small cell lung cancer biology by determining its prognostic significance.


METHODS
Osteopontin expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry, as percentage of neoplastic cells with cytoplasmic immunoreactivity, in a wide series of patients with stage I-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (207 cases). The median value of this series (20% of positive cells) was used as the cutoff value to distinguish tumors with low (<20%) from tumors with high (> or =20%) osteopontin expression.


RESULTS
Taking the series of patients as a whole (207 cases), osteopontin expression was associated with neither overall survival (P = 0.14) nor disease-free survival (P = 0.074). However, among patients with at least 6 years of follow-up (163 cases), 6-year overall survival and disease-free survival were significantly reduced if osteopontin expression was high (P = 0.0085 for overall survival, P = 0.0023 for disease-free survival). Moreover, a statistically significant correlation between high levels of osteopontin and shorter overall survival (P = 0.034) and disease-free survival (P = 0.011) in patients with stage I tumors (136 cases) was shown.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the hypothesis of an association between high osteopontin expression and poor survival of patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer, suggesting that osteopontin could be a candidate target for cancer therapy.
Donati
Valentina
V
Division of Surgical Pathology, Departments of Surgery, University of Pisa, Italy.
Boldrini
Laura
L
Dell'Omodarme
Matteo
M
Prati
Maria C
MC
Faviana
Pinuccia
P
Camacci
Tiziano
T
Lucchi
Marco
M
Mussi
Alfredo
A
Santoro
Massimo
M
Basolo
Fulvio
F
Fontanini
Gabriella
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D053495:Osteopontin; D011379:Prognosis; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D016019:Survival Analysis
C506895:SPP1 protein, human; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins; D053495:Osteopontin