Transforming growth factor-β1 and α-smooth muscle actin in stromal fibroblasts are associated with a poor prognosis in patients with clinical stage I-IIIA nonsmall cell lung cancer after curative resection.
The aims of this study were to investigate the expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in surgical resection specimens from nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to evaluate the prognostic significance of this gene expression in stromal fibroblasts for patients with clinical stage I-IIIA NSCLC. The immunohistochemical expression of TGF-β1 and α-SMA was evaluated in 78 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor specimens from clinical stage I-IIIA NSCLC. Correlations between this gene expression and the clinicopathologic characteristics were determined by chi-square test. The prognostic impact of this gene expression in stromal fibroblasts with regard to overall survival (OS) was determined by Kaplan-Meier and Cox hazard proportional model. The percentages of high TGF-β1 expression in stromal fibroblasts and cancer cells were 19.2 % (15/78) and 35.9 % (28/78), respectively. There were 28.2 % (22/78) of patients with high α-SMA expression in stromal fibroblasts. The analysis revealed a significant positive association between TGF-β1 expression in stromal fibroblasts and in cancer cells (χ (2) = 4.86, p = 0.03). No significant association was found between TGF-β1 in cancer cells and α-SMA expression in stromal fibroblasts (χ (2) = 0.978, p = 0.326). The 3-year OS rates with low and high TGF-β1 expression in stromal fibroblasts were 52.4 and 26.7 %, respectively (χ (2) = 5.42, p = 0.019). The 3-year OS rates with low and high α-SMA expression in stromal fibroblasts were 53.9 and 31.0 %, respectively (χ (2) =5.01, p=0.025). The multivariate analysis revealed that clinical stage and TGF-β1 and α-SMA expression levels in stromal fibroblasts were identified as independent predictive factors of OS. The results suggest that the expression level of TGF-β1 and α-SMA in stromal fibroblasts may have prognostic significance in patients with clinical stage I-IIIA NSCLC after curative resection.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Yongbing
Y
Chen
Li
L
Zou
Yongsheng
Y
Zhang
Yuanyuan
Y
Chen
Pengfei
P
Xing
Wentao
W
Yang
Feng
F
Li
Xiaoqing
X
Ji
Fengjv
F
Liu
Xueguan
X
Lu
D000199:Actins / Q000235:genetics*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000235:genetics*
C541116:ACTA2 protein, human; D000199:Actins; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1