title: Clinicopathological significance of fascin-1 expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Fascin-1 promotes the formation of filopodia, lamellipodia, and microspikes of cell membrane after its cross-linking with F-actin, thereby enhancing the cell movement and metastasis and invasion of tumor cells. This study explored the fascin-1 protein's expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and its relationship with clinical pathology and prognostic indicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemical analysis was used to determine the expression of fascin-1 in NSCLC tissues. We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis to further verify the results. The fascin-1 expression and statistical method for clinical pathological parameters are examined by χ (2). Kaplan-Meier method is used for survival analysis. Cox's Proportional Hazard Model was used to conduct a combined-effect analysis for each covariate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 73 of the 128 cases, NSCLC cancer tissues (57.0%) were found with high expression of fascin-1, which was significantly higher than the adjacent tissues (35/128, 27.3%). The results suggested that the high expression of fascin-1 was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.022) and TNM stage (P=0.042). The high fascin-1 expression patients survived shorter than those NSCLC patients with low fascin-1 expression (P<0.05). Univariate analysis revealed that lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and fascin-1 expression status were correlated with the overall survival. Similarly, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and fascin-1 expression status were significantly associated with the overall survival in multivariate analyses by using the Cox regression model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fascin-1 protein may be a useful prognostic indicator and hopeful new target for NSCLC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University (The Branch Hospital of Donggang), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ling
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University (The Branch Hospital of Donggang), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University (The Branch Hospital of Donggang), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ming
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University (The Branch Hospital of Donggang), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
keywords: NSCLC; biomarker; fascin-1; prognosis