title: [Expression of survivin and its correlation with apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the expression of survivin and its relation with apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survivin expression was examined in sixty paraffin-embedded NSCLC samples and 16 benign pulmonary disease tissues by immunohistochemistry methods.Apoptosis of NSCLC cells was detected by TUNEL technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Survivin was expressed in 38 of 60 (63.3%) NSCLC tissues.In contrast, benign pulmonary disease tissues did not express survivin. The expression of survivin protein was closely related to TNM stages (P < 0.05), lymph node involvement (P < 0.05) and cell differentiation (P < 0.01), but not to histological classification, gender and ages (P > 0.05). A correlation coefficient test showed a negative correlation between the AI and survivin expression (r=-0.231,P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Apoptosis inhibition caused by abnormal survivin expression may participate in the oncogenesis and progression of NSCLC. The over-expression of survivin suggest the bad prognosis in NSCLC. Survivin gene may be indentified as a potential therapeutic target in NSCLC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Diseases, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430060, P.R.China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lihou
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Qingquan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li