Significance and expression of E-cadherin and CD44v6 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

To investigate the expression of E-cadherin and CD44v6 in NSCLC and to find their clinical significance. High sensitive S-P immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of E-cadherin and CD44v6 in 65 cases of NSCLC and 20 samples from of adjacent nonneoplastic tissues. The positive rates of E-cadherin expression (32.31%)in NSCLC were apparently lower than those in adjacent normal tissues(75.00%)(P0.01),which were negatively correlated to TNM stages and lymph node metastasis(P0.05) respectively and were positively correlated to differentiations( P0.01).However the positive rates of E-cadherin expression have not related with the histological types of NSCLC(P0.05).There was no significant correlation between the positive rates of CD44v6 expression and the histological types of tumor and differentiations(P0.05).It was positively correlated to TNM stages and lymph node metastasis(P0.05,(0.01)).The association between the expression of E-cadherin and CD44v6 is significant in NSCLC(P0.05). The concordant rate of E-cadherin and CD44v6 expression was relatively high in NSCLC. They can be used as markers of treatment and prognosis of NSCLC in clinical practice.