title: Angiopoietin-like protein ANGPTL2 gene expression is correlated with lymph node metastasis in lung cancer.
abstract: Inflammation plays key roles at various stages of tumor development, including invasion and metastasis. In mice, the angiopoietin-like protein (ANGPTL2) gene has been implicated in inflammatory carcinogenesis. ANGPTL2 mRNA expression was investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay using LightCycler in surgically treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases. In total, 110 surgically resected NSCLC cases were used for mRNA level analyses. The ANGPTL2/β-actin mRNA levels were not significantly different between lung cancer (1598.481±6465.781) and adjacent normal lung tissues (2116.639±8337.331, P=0.5453). The tumor/normal (T/N) ratio of ANGPTL2/β-actin mRNA levels was not different between gender, age, smoking status and pathological stages. The T/N ratio of ANGPTL2/β-actin mRNA levels was significantly higher in lymph node metastasis-positive cases (2.173±3.151) compared with lymph node metastasis-negative cases (1.212±1.778, P=0.0464). However, ANGPTL2 mRNA status was not correlated with tumor invasion status. Thus, ANGPTL2 may drive metastasis and provide a candidate for blockade of its function as a strategy to antagonize the metastatic process in NSCLC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Immunology and Surgery, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601,  Japan.
authors.forename: Hidefumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Ayumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shitara
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hikosaka
authors.forename: Katsuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moriyama
authors.forename: Motoki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujii