UDP-glucose 6-dehydrogenase expression as a predictor of survival in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Background: UDP-glucose-6-dehydrogenase (UGDH) plays an important role in the production of hyaluronic acid, an extracellular matrix component that is responsible for the promotion of normal cellular growth and migration. Increased levels of UGDH have been linked to the progression of epithelial cancers, such as those of the breast, colon and prostate. Therefore we aimed to analyze if the expression level of UGDH does also influence patients survival of lung cancer patients. Methods: UGDH expression levels were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 96 samples of pulmonary adenocarcinoma (AC), 84 cases of squamous cell lung carcinoma (SQCLC) and 33 samples of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and correlated with clinicopathologic characteristics and patient outcome. Results: UGDH was expressed in 62.5% cases of AC, 70.2% cases of SQCLC, and 48.5% cases of SCLC. In AC, expression of UGDH was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis and worse overall survival of the affected patients. However, UGDH expression had no significant correlation to prognosis in SQCLC or SCLC patients. Conclusions: In our study, expression of UGDH was associated with worse prognosis of patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma so that expression of UGDH might help to guide treatment decisions. Furthermore, UGDH might present a potential novel drug target in AC as it displays inhibitable catalytic activity.