[Expression of thrombospondin-1 and CD44 in human lung cancer tissues and their prognostic significance].
BACKGROUND
To analyze the expression of CD44H , CD44V6 and TSP-1 in human lung cancer tissues and their prognostic significance.


METHODS
A total of 112 lung cancer samples were examined for CD44H , CD44V6 and TSP-1 expression by immunohistochemical staining. Moreover , 25 cases out of them were detected for TSP-1 by RT-PCR assay simultaneously.


RESULTS
Stronger expression of TSP-1 was demonstrated in adenocarcinomas (74. 36 %) as compared with squamous cell carcinomas (47. 17 % , P = 0. 03) and small cell lung cancer (35. 71 % , P = 0. 02) . All of small cell lung cancer had significantly low expression of CD44H and CD44V6. Adenocarcinomas (61. 54 %) showed stronger CD44H membranous expression than squamous cell carcinomas did (50. 94 % , P = 0. 036) . Whereas , squamous cell carcinomas (50. 94 %) showed stronger CD44V6 membranous expression than adenocarcinomas did (17. 95 % , P = 0. 003) . Kaplan-Meier survival statistical analysis for 100 cases with complete follow-up data indicated that there was no significant relationship among TSP-1 , CD44H , CD44V6 expression and overall survival rate. However , after stratifying by histopathological types , the overall survival rate of patients with low expression of TSP-1 was significantly higher than that of moderate/ high expression groups in adenocarcinomas (Log Rank= 0. 0163) . Immunohistochemical and RT-PCR technique were utilized in 25 out of 112 cases simultaneously. The accordance rate of the two methods was 84 % , and no significant difference was found between them.


CONCLUSIONS
The expression of TSP-1 , CD44H and CD44V6 is significantly related to histopathological types. TSP-1 expression might be a prognostic indicator in lung adenocarcinoma. TSP-1 can be detected reliably in formalin-fixed , paraffin-embedded tissues by immunohistochemical method.
Department of Thoracic Surgery , Tianjin Cancer Hospital , Tianjin 300060 , P. R. China.
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J
You
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Zhang
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Zhang
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Chen
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Liu
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Sun