Expression of N-cadherin in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance

AIM: To explore the expression level of N-cadherin gene in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: The expression of N-cadherin protein was detected in 90 NSCLC tissues by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The positive rate of N-cadherin expression in NSCLC tissues was 33.3%(30/90). No significant difference of N-cadherin expression was found in NSCLC tissues of squamous cell carcinoma (30%) and adenocarcinoma (35%)(P0.05). The positive rate of N-cadherin expression (47.06%) in the NSCLC tissues of Ⅲ stage was significantly higher than that in NSCLC tissues ofⅠandⅡstages (25%) (P0.05). The positive rate of N-cadherin expression (42.31%) in the NSCLC tissues of N 1, 2 and 3 groups was significantly higher than that in the NSCLC tissues of N 0 group (21.05%) (P0.05). N-cadherin expression rate was related to the lymph node metastasis (P0.05) and TNM stages of lung cancer (P0.05), but not to the histological classification. CONCLUSION: N-cadherin protein expression may be associated with the invasion and progression of NSCLC.