Expression of MTS2/p15 gene product and its clinical significance in primary non-small cell lung cancer

ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between the expression level of MTS2/p15 gene and the metastasis and prognosis of human primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsWe studied the level of epxression of the p15 gene in 138 human NSCLC tissues using immunnohistochemistry,with 23 specimens of normal lung tissues as control.ResultsThe level of p15 gene expression (65.66%) in lung cancer tissues was significantly lower than that in normal lung tissue (89.43%) (P0.05).The level of its decrease was closely related to metastasis of lung cancer,but not to the size,location,age and history of smoking (P0.05). The 5-year survival rate of the patients with high expression of p15 (65%) was significantly higher than those with low expression (≤65%).With Cox′s multivariate analysis,we found that MTS2/p15 epxression,lymph node metastasis and TNM stages had independent value in judging the prognosis of patients.ConclusionMTS2/p15 gene may be involved in the oncogenesis,development and metastasis of human non-small cell lung cancer,which is useful indicator in predicting the prognosis of NSCLC.