title: Autophagic protein Beclin 1 serves as an independent positive prognostic biomarker for non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: Beclin 1, a key regulator of autophagy, has been found to be aberrantly expressed in a variety of human malignancies. Herein, we employed immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect the protein expression of Beclin 1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and paired normal adjacent lung tissues, and analyzed its clinicopathological/prognostic significance in NSCLC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized to determine a cutoff point (>2 VS. ≤ 2) for Beclin 1 expression in a training set (n = 105). For validation, the ROC-derived cutoff value was subjected to analysis of the association of Beclin 1 with patients' clinical characteristics and outcome in a testing set (n = 111) and the overall patient cohort (n = 216). Our data showed that Beclin 1 was significantly lower in NSCLC tissues compared with the adjacent normal tissues, negatively associating with tumor recurrence rate (65.8% VS 32.3%; p < 0.001). In the testing set and the overall patient cohort, low expression of Beclin 1 showed significantly inferior overall survival (OS) (p < 0.001) and progression-free survival (PFS) (p < 0.001) compared to high expression of Beclin 1. In the testing set and the overall patient cohort, the median duration of OS for patients with high and low expression of Beclin 1 was 108 VS. 24.5 months (p < 0.001) and 108 VS. 28 months (p < 0.001), respectively. Furthermore, low expression of Beclin 1 was also a poor prognostic factor within each stage of NSCLC patients. Multivariate analysis identified that Beclin 1 was an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC. Our findings in the present study provided evidence that Beclin 1 may thus emerge as an independent prognostic biomarker in this tumor entity in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China ; State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Caifeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.forename: Jinyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Ronghuan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Qiongyu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dexiang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Jianbing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Anwen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001343:Autophagy / Q000235:genetics*; D000071186:Beclin-1; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C491997:BECN1 protein, human; D000071186:Beclin-1; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D008565:Membrane Proteins