NFE2L2 gene mutation in male Japanese squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.
BACKGROUND
Recently, the nuclear factor (erythroid derived 2)-like 2 (NFE2L2) gene mutations were identified in lung cancer. The constitutive activation of NFE2L2 in lung cancer cells promotes tumorigenicity. However, the correlation between NFE2L2 mutation status and clinicopathologic features of lung cancer has not been well characterized.


METHODS
We have investigated NFE2L2 gene mutation status in 263 surgically treated lung cancer cases at Nagoya City University Hospital. The NFE2L2 mutation was analyzed by direct sequencing of cDNA.


RESULTS
We detected 13 cases (5.1%) of NFE2L2 mutation in our cohort; all were male and all had a squamous histology. EGFR mutations were present in 78 patients (30.8%). The NFE2L2 mutation was exclusive with EGFR mutations. The NFE2L2 mutation tended to be more frequently found in patients with advanced stages. The patients with NFE2L2 mutation (n = 13, 8 were dead) had significantly worse prognosis than the patient with wild type NFE2L2 (n = 250, 72 were dead) (Log-rank test, p = 0.0032, Breslow-Gehan-Wilcoxon test, p = 0.0028).


CONCLUSIONS
NFE2L2 mutations might play a role in tumor prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.
Sasaki
Hidefumi
H
Department of Oncology, Immunology, and Surgery, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, Japan. hisasaki @med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Hikosaka
Yu
Y
Okuda
Katsuhiro
K
Kawano
Osamu
O
Moriyama
Satoru
S
Yano
Motoki
M
Fujii
Yoshitaka
Y
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2 / Q000235:genetics*; D011379:Prognosis
D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2; C495635:NFE2L2 protein, human; D066246:ErbB Receptors