1. Prognostic implications of ezrin and phosphorylated ezrin expression in non-small cell lung cancer
- Author
-
Xionghu Shen, Songnan Zhang, Zhenhua Lin, Yun Ho Choi, Yingshi Piao, Jingchun Jin, Tiefeng Jin, and Xiangyu Li
- Subjects
Male ,Cancer Research ,Lung Neoplasms ,Cellular differentiation ,Cell ,Phosphorylated ezrin ,Gene Expression ,macromolecular substances ,Ezrin ,environment and public health ,Disease-Free Survival ,Surgical oncology ,Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ,Genetics ,medicine ,Carcinoma ,Biomarkers, Tumor ,Humans ,Phosphorylation ,Lung cancer ,Cell adhesion ,Neoplasm Staging ,business.industry ,Cell Differentiation ,Survival analysis ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Prognosis ,Immunohistochemistry ,respiratory tract diseases ,Cytoskeletal Proteins ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Oncology ,Lymphatic Metastasis ,Cancer research ,Female ,business ,Research Article - Abstract
Background The cytoskeletal organizer ezrin is a member of the ezrin-radixin-moesin (ERM) family and plays important roles in not only cell motility, cell adhesion, and apoptosis, but also in various cell signaling pathways. Phosphorylation at Thr-567 and Tyr-353 are key regulatory events in the transition of the dormant to active form of ezrin. This study investigated the prognostic implications of ezrin and phosphorylated ezrin (p-ezrin) expression in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Methods Ezrin and p-ezrin protein expressions were examined by immunohistochemistry in 150 NSCLC and adjacent non-tumor tissues and 14 normal lung tissues. qRT-PCR was used to determine ezrin mRNA expression levels in fresh tissues. The correlations between overexpression of ezrin and p-ezrin and the clinicopathological features of NSCLC were analyzed. The survival rates were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method for 108 NSCLC cases. Results Ezrin and ezrinThr-567 proteins showed cytosolic and membranous staining patterns; however, ezrinTyr-353 protein only showed cytosolic staining. Ezrin and p-ezrin were significantly upregulated in NSCLC compared with the normal counterparts. Increased ezrin, ezrinThr-567, and ezrinTyr-353 levels were correlated with the late stage and poor differentiation of NSCLC. However, only ezrinThr-567 was correlated with the presence of lymph node metastasis. In regard to survival, only ezrinThr-567 was related with the overall survival time of patients with NSCLC, and both ezrin and ezrinThr-567 were associated with shortened survival time for patients with early stage NSCLC. Conclusions Ezrin and p-ezrin, especially ezrinThr-567, may prove to be useful as a novel prognostic biomarker of NSCLC.
- Published
- 2014