Expression Of CD137L In Non-small Cell Lung Ancer(NSCLC) And Its Clincal Significance

Objective1. To observe the expression of CD137L in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).2. Further to investigation the correlation of expression of CD137L withclinicopathologic features and prognosis in NSCLC.Methods1. Frozen tissue of cancer and its adjacent samples from42patients with confirmedNSCLC were collected between January2008and December2010from thedepartments of Nan Tong Cancer Hospital.2. We used real-time quantitative RT-PCR, western blot to investigate theexpression of CD137L in the frozen tissue of NSCLC patients and its adjacentsamples.3. Paraffin-embedded specimens from61patients with confirmed NSCLC werecollected between January2006and December2008from the departments of theFirst Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.4. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of CD137L in NSCLC.5. The results of immunohistochemistry using a semi-quantitative method toanalyze the correlation among the expression of CD137L and clinicopathalogicvariables, overall survival.Results1、The results of pairing42frozen tissue samples of non-small cell lung cancer： 1) qRT-PCR analysis indicated that the NSCLC patients had significant higherlevels of CD137L in NSCLC than in the paired samples（P <0.05）.2) CD137L expression in NSCLC was not related to age, sex, smoking status,pathologic type, lymph node metastasis and tumor size（P>0.05）,but was relatedto TNM stage (P <0.05).2、Results of Paraffin-embedded specimens of61cases of non-small cell lung cancerpatients by immunohistochemistry：1) The positive expression of CD137L protein was detected in the cytoplasm, somein the nuclei, which was brown or tan particles. In61cases of NSCLC tumortissue of28cases were positive, the positive expression rate of CD137L was45.90%(28/61), while five cases of adjacent tissues was negative.2) Paraffin-embedded specimens CD137L expression was not related to age, sex,pathologic type (P>0.05), but was related to TNM stage (P <0.05).3)61patients with NSCLC were followed up for1to56months, among that themedian follow-up time of35months, lost to3people. Negative expressiongroup, median survival is about15months, while another group, mediansurvival of about21. Log-rank analysis indicated that: expression-positivepatients of CD137L may live longer (P <0.05).4) The Cox multivariate analysis demonstrated that the CD137L expression hassome significance in NSCLC survival, it was an independent prognostic factor(P <0.05). The staging of NSCLC was also the factor affecting survival ofpatients.ConclusionExpression of CD137L is detected in NSCLC, and the level is higher than thatthe adjacent tissues. The positive expression rate of CD137L in NSCLC isassociated with pathologic stage and is postively correlated with prognosis. Our data suggest that CD137L plays an important role in tumor progression.