Abstract
BackgroundSMAD4 has been found to be inactivated to varying degrees in many types of cancer; the purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between SMAD4 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and clinical pathological parameters.MethodsThe serum concentration of SMAD4 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and its histological expression was quantified by immunohistochemistry.ResultsThe serum concentration of Smad4 in patients with NSCLC was lower than that in benign lung disease patients and healthy individuals (P < 0.001) and its concentration was related to the histological classification, pathological differentiation, lymphatic metastasis and clinical stage of NSCLC. The sensitivity and specificity of serum Smad4 were 91.56% and 61.56% for screening NSCLC from healthy individuals and 84.55% and 60.36% for screening NSCLC from patients with benign lung disease. Logistic regression analysis showed that the degree of cell differentiation (P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001) and clinical stage of NSCLC (P = 0.007) affected the expression of Smad4, and had a strong correlation with the expression of Smad4. The expression of Smad4 in NSCLC tissues was lower than that in normal lung tissues (P = 0.009) and its expression was related to the degree of tissue differentiation, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThe downregulation or deletion of Smad4 is related to the malignant biological behavior of NSCLC and serum Smad4 could be considered as a potential molecular indicator for diagnosis and evaluation of NSCLC.
Highlights
SMAD4 has been found to be inactivated to varying degrees in many types of cancer; the purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between SMAD4 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and clinical pathological parameters
Serum concentration of Smad4 is related to histological classification, pathological differentiation, lymphatic metastasis and clinical stage of NSCLC The concentration of serum Smad4 had nothing to do with the age and smoking status of NSCLC patients (P > 0.05) (Table 3), but seemed to be related to the gender of the patient (P = 0.001) (Table 3; Fig. 2b)
The results suggest that the downregulation or deletion of Smad4 is related to the malignant biological behavior of NSCLC and serum Smad4 could be considered as a potential molecular indicator for diagnosis and evaluation of NSCLC
Summary
SMAD4 has been found to be inactivated to varying degrees in many types of cancer; the purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between SMAD4 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and clinical pathological parameters. Recent studies have shown that the mutation, loss and down-regulation of the DPC4 gene are intrinsically linked to some malignant tumors and have played an important role in the development and metastasis of cancer [6,7,8]. Some studies have continuously suggested that there is a complex relationship between lung cancer and DPC4/Smad4 [9, 10], but the research data on the expression of Smad in NSCLC and its clinical significance is still insufficient. This study examined the expression of Smad in the serum and tissues of patients with NSCLC and analyzeed the correlation between Smad and various clinical parameters of NSCLC to understand the role of Smad in the diagnosis, risk prediction and disease evaluation of NSCLC
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