[Expression of E-cadherin in non-small cell lung cancer: correlation with lymphatic metastasis and prognosis].

BACKGROUND: To explore the expression level of E-cadherin gene and its relationship with lymph node metastasis and prognosis in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: The expression of E-cadherin protein was detected in 138 human NSCLC tissues by immunohistochemistry, and 23 normal lung tissues as control. RESULTS: The positive rate of E-cadherin expression (41.48%) in lung cancer tissues was significantly lower than that in normal lung tissues (73.12%) (P < 0.05). E-cadherin expression rate was closely related to lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) and TNM stages of lung cancer (P < 0.05), but not to the size of the primary tumor (T), differentiation of cancer cell, histological classification and history of smoking (P > 0.05). The 5-year survival rate of the patients with high expression of E-cadherin ( > 40%) was significantly higher than those with low expression (≤40%) (P < 0.05 ). CONCLUSIONS: Detection of E cadherin expression may be helpful to predict the prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.