Chen Jin-Liang, Han Hui-Na, Lv Xue-Dong, Ma Hang, Wu Jin-Nan, Chen Jian-Rong
Department of Respiraology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University Nantong, China.
Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2020 Feb 1;13(2):163-171. eCollection 2020.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common causes of tumor-associated mortality worldwide. Early diagnosis is the key focus for improving prognosis. In the present study, the association between exhaled breath condensate (EBC) let-7 and NSCLC diagnosis and clinicopathologic characteristics was investigated in order to explore non-invasive simple technological therapeutic methods. The expression levels of let-7 from 180 samples were analyzed using the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), consisting of 30 patients with NSCLC (lung cancer and para-carcinoma tissues, serum and EBC) and 30 healthy volunteers (serum and EBC). The results revealed that the let-7 levels in tumor tissues, serum, and EBC in NSCLC were significantly decreased compared with the control group (all, <0.001). The let-7 expression in lung cancer tissue, serum, and EBC in NSCLC decreased alongside the progression of disease (tumor-node-metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis; all <0.05). No significant association between let-7 expression and other clinicopathologic characteristics (age, sex, smoking status and histopathologic classification) was identified. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to present data and the area under the curve (AUC) of lung cancer tissue let-7 was 0.894, and the specificity and sensitivity were 90% and 93.3%, respectively. The AUC of serum let-7 in NSCLC diagnosis was 0.771, and the specificity and sensitivity were 86.7% and 60%, respectively. The AUC of let-7 in EBC was 0.750, and the specificity and sensitivity were 76.7% and 66.7%, respectively. In addition, the let-7 expression in EBC was positively correlated with that in lung cancer tissue (r=0.6048, P<0.001) and positively correlated with that in serum (r=0.6454, P<0.001). Taken together, the results of the present study indicated that detection of let-7 was feasible in EBC and with the advantages associated with EBC, and let-7 in EBC may be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and evaluation of NSCLC.
非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）是全球肿瘤相关死亡的最常见原因之一。早期诊断是改善预后的关键重点。在本研究中，为了探索非侵入性简单技术治疗方法，研究了呼出气冷凝液（EBC）中let-7与NSCLC诊断及临床病理特征之间的关联。使用逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）分析了180份样本中let-7的表达水平，其中包括30例NSCLC患者（肺癌组织、癌旁组织、血清和EBC）以及30名健康志愿者（血清和EBC）。结果显示，与对照组相比，NSCLC患者肿瘤组织、血清和EBC中的let-7水平显著降低（均P<0.001）。NSCLC患者肺癌组织、血清和EBC中let-7的表达随疾病进展而降低（肿瘤-淋巴结-转移分期和淋巴结转移；均P<0.05）。未发现let-7表达与其他临床病理特征（年龄、性别、吸烟状态和组织病理学分类）之间存在显著关联。采用受试者工作特征曲线（ROC）展示数据，肺癌组织中let-7的曲线下面积（AUC）为0.894，特异性和敏感性分别为90%和93.3%。NSCLC诊断中血清let-7的AUC为0.771，特异性和敏感性分别为86.7%和60%。EBC中let-7的AUC为0.750，特异性和敏感性分别为76.7%和66.7%。此外，EBC中let-7的表达与肺癌组织中的表达呈正相关（r=0.6048，P<0.001），与血清中的表达也呈正相关（r=0.6454，P<0.001）。综上所述，本研究结果表明，在EBC中检测let-7是可行的，且具有与EBC相关的优势，EBC中的let-7可能是NSCLC诊断和评估的有前景的生物标志物。
