VHL expression level in the pathological tissue is significantly associated with clinical outcomes of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients. (withdrawn 03/11/2021)

Abstract

Objective To investigate the association between expression level of VHL in pathological tissue and outcomes of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods The pathological samples of NSCLC patients were obtained for immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the expression level of VHL. Furthermore, their clinical data were collected and prognosis was traced by phone. The correlation between gene expression level and the hematotoxicity was evaluated by chi-square test. The influence of VHL expression level on the risk of hematotoxicity was tested by logistic regression model. The survival curve was plotted by Kaplan-Meier method and the survival rate between the two groups was compared by log-rank test. Results A total of 110 NSCLC patients were enrolled in this study, the median follow-up time of these patients was 27.5 months. In the whole group, 31 patients had died by the last date of follow-up to get their survival information (Nov.10,2020), with a median survival time of 24.3 months. Though immunohistochemical analysis,we found that 59 patients(53.6%) had weak expression level of VHL or lack of expression in their tumor tissues,while 51 patients(46.4%) presented moderate or high expression. We found that the patients with weak expression of VHL in their carcinoma tissue or lack of expression had more opportunities to occur neutropenia after platinum-based chemotherapy(OR=0.264,95%CI=0.085-0.818,P-value=0.021).And the expression level of VHL was correlated with OS(Logrank test：P-value= 0.007，HR= 4.219,95%CI: 1.75-10.174, P-value=0.001), while not related with DFS(Logrank test：P-value=0.256，HR= 1.334,95%CI:0.642-2.769, P-value=0.440). Conclusion The expression level of VHL gene in pathological tissue is related with Granulocytosis and leukocytotoxicity after platinum-based chemotherapy in NSCLC patients. It can be used as a biomarker to predict the risk of neutropenia and the prognosis of NSCLC patients.