Expression and significance of PTEN and nm23-H1 in the metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer.

Abstract

It has been proven that PTEN and nm23-H1 genes were the tumor metastasis suppressor genes. Up to now, most of studies are aim at basic research. The aim of this study is to explore the level of expression of PTEN and nm23-H1 protein in non-small cell lung cancer and their relationship to the clinical significance of non-small cell lung cancer. An immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of PTEN and nm23-H1 protein in 60 cases of non-small cell lung cancer. In the groups with and without lymph nodes metastasis, the positive rates of PTEN protein expression were 41.94% and 79.31% respectively. The difference between them was significant (P <0.01). The rates of positive expression of nm23-H1 protein were 45.16% and 82.76% respectively. The difference between them also was significant (P <0.01). The expression of PTEN was relatively consistent with that of nm23-H1 (Kappa =0.436 6, Z =3.390 5, P <0.01). The expressions of PTEN and nm23-H1 in NSCLC were closely related to lymph nodes metastasis. Combining detection of these two proteins might be more helpful for evaluating lymph nodes metastasis and predicting the prognosis.