A study on the relationship between chemokine receptor CCR7 expression and non-small cell lung cancer lymph node metastasis

Objective: To investigate the expression level of chemokine receptor 7(CCR7) and explore its clinical value in non-small cell lung cancer.Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect CCR7 protein and reverse transcription PCR(RT-PCR) was used to detect CCR7 mRNA in 40 cases of lung cancer(25 cases of squamous cell carcinoma,14 cases of adenocarcinoma,1 case of adenosquamous carcinoma).20 pericancerous normal lung specimens were as the negative control samples.Results: CCR7 protein expression was shown in 25(62.5%)non-small cell lung cancer specimens and 1(5%)case of normal lung specimens.There was a significant difference(χ2 =17.952,P0.01).CCR7 mRNA expression was showed in 29(72.5%) non-small cell lung cancer specimens and 2(10%)cases of normal lung specimens(χ2 =20.857,P0.01).The CCR7 expression was significantly associated with TNM stage、lymph node metastasis、differentiate degree and regional invasion,but not associated with age at surgery、gender、tumor size and pathological type.In the retrospectively study,the sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value of CCR7 expression for lymph node metastasis was 95.9%(100%)、77.8%(61.1%)、84%(75.9%)、93.3%(100%) respectively.Conclusion: CCR7 mRNA and protein are expressed highly in non-small cell lung cancer and with significant correlation to lymph node metastasis.CCR7 positive expression is an independent risk factor of lymph node metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer and can be a selected clinical reference marker to foresee lymphatic spread and has value in directing target therapy.