Prognostic Value of Telomeric Zinc Finger-Associated Protein Expression in Adenocarcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Lung.

: Telomeric zinc finger-associated protein (TZAP) is a telomere regulation protein, previously known as ZBTB48. It binds preferentially to elongated telomeres, competing with telomeric repeat factors 1 and 2. TZAP expression may be associated with carcinogenesis, however; this study has not yet been performed in lung cancer. In this study, we examined the clinicopathological and prognostic values of TZAP expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Data were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The clinical and prognostic values of TZAP for NSCLC were examined in adenocarcinoma (AD) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). TZAP expression significantly increased in NSCLC tissues compared with normal tissues. In AD, TZAP expression was lower in patients with higher T stage ( = 0.005), and was associated with lymph node stage in SCC ( = 0.005). Survival analysis showed shorter disease-free survival in AD patients with lower TZAP expression ( = 0.047). TZAP expression did not have other clinical or prognostic value for AD and SCC. : TZAP expression is a potential prognostic marker for NSCLC, especially in patients with AD.