Clinical significance of phosphorylated Akt expression in non-small cell lung cancer

Objective The purpose of this study is to verify whether overexpression of phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) is correlated with clinicopathologic parameters and prognosis in patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to determine the expression of p-Akt of lung tissues of normal controls(20 cases ) and of patients with NSCLC(102 cases).All patients were followed-up from 3 months to 60 months.Results The positive incidences of p-Akt expresssion in NSCLC was 41.2% (42/102) while p-Akt expression was negative in all specimens of normal lung tissues.The expression of p-Akt was correlated to differentiation degree of cancer cells,metastasis (including lymph node),and clinical stages.Patients with p-Akt positive expression showed significant inferior rates of 5 years survival (14.29% vs 33.33%) and shorter median survival time (14 months vs 32 months) than those with p-Akt negative expression.Significant difference bwtween the survival of 42 patients with positive p-Akt staining and of no p-Akt staining was demonstrated by Log rank (χ 2=14.24,P= 0.000 2).Conclusion Overexpression of p-Akt,which is concerned with carcinogenesis of NSCLC,is an independent adverse prognositc factor.