title: Elevated circulating levels of osteopontin are associated with metastasis in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between postoperative metastasis and circulating levels of osteopontin in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The expression of osteopontin mRNA were detected with RT-PCR technique. The circulating levels of osteopontin were measured through ELASA in 46 NSCLC cases that had not been received any anti-cancer treatment at the time of sampling. The tissues from fifteen patients with benign pulmonary diseases were studied as control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall median mRNA expression level of osteopontin was approximately 70-fold higher in tumor tissues than in matched normal lung tissues (P<0.001). Over-expression of osteopontin mRNA was significantly associated with clinical stage (P=0.009). Advanced disease states had higher circulating level of osteopontin (stage I+II versus stage III+VI). In multivariate analysis, stage was the only independent factor influencing circulating levels of osteopontin. All patients were followed up for 12 months, 2 of the 46 patients with both osteopontin mRNA expression and elevated plasma osteopontin levels had local recurrence and 10 had distant metastasis. There was a significant difference in the osteopontin levels between metastasis group and non-metastasis group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preoperative plasma levels of osteopontin are significantly associated with post-operative metastasis in advanced NSCLC.
authors: Department of Thoracic Surgery and Central Laboratory, Beijing Key Laboratory of Respiratory and Circulation, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, China.
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Liang
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Li
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: Hu
authors: Xing
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: Jin-Bai
authors: JB
authors: Miao
authors: Tong
authors: T
authors: Li
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: You
authors: Qi-Rui
authors: QR
authors: Chen
authors: Yi-Li
authors: YL
authors: Fu
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Sheng-Cai
authors: SC
authors: Hou
keywords: Metastasis; Non-small cell lung cancer; Osteopontin; Prognosis