Expression of EGFR,VEGF and COX-2 in non-small cell lung cancer and its significance

Objective To evaluate the expression of EGFR,VEGF and COX-2,the three main angiogenesis-related proteins,and the relationship between expression and clinicopathologic parameters in patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC).MethodsThe expression of EGFR,VEGF and COX-2 was accessed by immunohistochemical staining on tissue microarray sections made of 73 cases of young patients with NSCLC,65 of old patients with NSCLC,10 of benign lung tumors and 10 of normal lung samples.The results were compared with relevant clinical characteristics and the interrelation between the three proteins was assessed by Spearman correlation analysis.ResultsThe positive rates of cytoplasmic expression of EGFR,VEGF and COX-2 were 51.4%,73.2% and 44.9%,respectively.There were 2 cases with positive expression of VEGF and 2 with positive expression of COX-2 in benign lung tumors,but none of normal lung samples was expressed.The positive expression of EGFR was higher in male,smokers,patients with squamous cell cancer and without lymph node metastasis(P0.05).There was no correlation between VEGF expression and clinical characteristics(P0.05).The positive expression of COX-2 was higher in patients with adenocarcinoma(P=0.000).No correlation was found between any protein expression and age.A positive correlation was found between expression of EGFR and VEGF(r=0.198,P=0.02).ConclusionsEGFR,VEGF and COX-2 are highly expressed in NSCLC without difference between young and old patients;EGFR and VEGF might act synergistically in angiogenesis of NSCLC.