The impact of ABCB1 gene polymorphism and its expression on non-small-cell lung cancer development, progression and therapy - preliminary report.

The ABCB1 gene belongs to ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes that has been previously implicated in cancer progression and drug response. This study aimed to evaluate the association between the SNP 3435 and the expression of the ABCB1 gene in lung cancer patients in the Polish population in comparison to clinicopathological parameters and treatment. 150 RNA and 47 DNA samples were isolated from 49 lung cancer cases including both tissue samples and blood taken from the same patients at three time points: diagnosis, 100 days and one year after the surgical intervention. Qualitative and real-time PCR analysis of expression were done, also genotyping by PCR-RFLP. Mutant homozygous TT and allele T are present statistically significantly more frequently in the group of patients with lung cancer. There is no difference with expression level in lung cancer tissue and blood sample taken from the same patients before surgical treatment. On the basis of blood samples analysis it was observed that the expression level of ABCB1 mRNA was growing in time. Higher levels were marked after 100 days and one year after the surgical intervention. The complementary pharmacological treatment induced higher expression levels of ABCB1. The presented data suggest an important role of ABCB1 in lung cancer, the increasing level of ABCB1 mRNA which can be connected with induction of multidrug resistance mechanism is also significant, that observation must be confirmed in further analysis.