Expression and clinical contribution of MRGD mRNA in non-small cell lung cancers.

PURPOSE

MAS-related G protein-coupled receptor, member D (MRGD) has been reported to be involved in tumorigenesis in vivo. However, the clinical role of MRGD in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclarified. The purpose of the current study was to detect the expression of MRGD mRNA in NSCLC formalin-fixed (FF), paraffin-embedded (PE) tissues and to investigate the clinicopathological significance of the MRGD level in NSCLC patients.

METHODS

The expression of MRGD mRNA was examined in 125 NSCLC tissue samples together with paired para-noncancerous FF/PE tissues by using real time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Furthermore, the relationship between MRGD level and clinicopathological parameters of NSCLC was analyzed.

RESULTS

The average level of MRGD in NSCLC tumor tissues (1.0682±0.6096) was remarkably higher than that in the adjacent non-cancerous lung tissue (0.3994±0.2838, p<0.001). The area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) of MRGD mRNA was 0.853 (95% CI: 0.808-0.898, p(0.001). Moreover, the level of MRGD mRNA was found to be correlated to lymph node metastasis (r=0.219, p=0.014), tumor size (r=0.221, p=0.013) and clinical TNM stage (r=0.187, p=0.037). Finally, the survival of patients in high MGRD expression group was 7.94±9.85 months, remarkably shorter than that of the low expression group (20.84±1.19 months, p=0.049).

CONCLUSIONS

MRGD may be a vital diagnostic and prognostic factor in NSCLC. MRGD possesses the potential to become a new target for the molecular therapy of NSCLC.