Sakabe Tomohiko, Azumi Junya, Haruki Tomohiro, Umekita Yoshihisa, Nakamura Hiroshige, Shiota Goshi
Division of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine and Regenerative Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Tottori 683-8504, Japan.
Division of Organ Pathology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Tottori 683-8504, Japan.
Oncol Lett. 2017 May;13(5):3703-3708. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.5925. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for >85% of incidences of lung cancer, for which the predicted 5-year survival rates are low and recurrence rates remain high. Although it has been reported that the patients with SCLC cells that possess the cluster of differentiation (CD) 117 marker exhibited poor prognosis and poor response to chemotherapy, no studies concerning the association of CD117 expression with prognosis of the patients with NSCLC have been reported. An study reportedly revealed that CD117-positive cell populations in NSCLC cell lines exhibited cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotypes including self-renewal and chemoresistance. Therefore, the present study hypothesized that if CD117-positive cells are CSC-like cells, CD117 positivity may be associated with the prognosis of patients with NSCLC. To confirm this hypothesis, the association between CD117 expression in patients with NSCLC and clinicopathological characteristics was investigated. CD177 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in 99 patients with NSCLC who underwent curative surgical resection. Tumor samples in the present study included 73 samples of adenocarcinoma and 26 of squamous carcinoma. The associations of CD177 expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis were examined. The lymph node metastasis and rates of recurrence were significantly associated with overall survival rates through multivariate analysis (P<0.001 and P<0.001), respectively. A Kaplan-Meier analysis for relapse-free survival and the log-rank test revealed that the patients with CD117-positive cell populations exhibited shorter relapse-free survival rates compared with patients whose cells were CD117-negative (P=0.014). The multivariate analysis demonstrated that venous invasion, pathological stage, and CD117 expression were independent prognostic parameters for relapse-free survival in patients with NSCLC (P=0.001, P=0.001 and P=0.002), respectively. In conclusion, these data suggest that CD117 expression in NSCLC may serve as a useful marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with NSCLC.
非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）占肺癌发病率的85%以上，其预测的5年生存率较低，复发率仍然很高。尽管有报道称，具有分化簇（CD）117标志物的小细胞肺癌细胞患者预后较差，对化疗反应不佳，但尚未有关于CD117表达与NSCLC患者预后相关性的研究报道。据一项研究显示，NSCLC细胞系中CD117阳性细胞群表现出癌症干细胞（CSC）表型，包括自我更新和化疗耐药性。因此，本研究假设，如果CD117阳性细胞是类似CSC的细胞，那么CD117阳性可能与NSCLC患者的预后相关。为了证实这一假设，研究了NSCLC患者CD117表达与临床病理特征之间的相关性。通过免疫组织化学检测了99例接受根治性手术切除的NSCLC患者的CD177表达。本研究中的肿瘤样本包括73例腺癌样本和26例鳞癌样本。检测了CD177表达与临床病理特征及预后的相关性。通过多因素分析，淋巴结转移和复发率分别与总生存率显著相关（P<0.001和P<0.001）。对无复发生存率的Kaplan-Meier分析和对数秩检验显示，与CD117阴性细胞的患者相比，CD117阳性细胞群的患者无复发生存率较短（P=0.014）。多因素分析表明，静脉侵犯、病理分期和CD117表达分别是NSCLC患者无复发生存的独立预后参数（P=0.001、P=0.001和P=0.002）。总之，这些数据表明，NSCLC中CD117表达可能是预测NSCLC患者预后的有用标志物。
