Effects of p38MAPK-mediated excision repair cross-complementation 1 expression on prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of excision repair cross-complementation 1 (ERCC1) expression on the prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 140 patients with NSCLC who underwent radical resection were included. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on the tissue specimens obtained from patients and correlation analysis was used to determine the association between ERCC1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. Cell proliferation was assessed using an MTT assay. The mRNA and protein expression levels were detected using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis, respectively. The expression of ERCC1 was demonstrated to be significantly elevated in tumor tissue compared with adjacent tissue samples. Furthermore, the expression of ERCC1 in squamous carcinoma was significantly higher compared with in adenocarcinoma samples. The expression of ERCC1 in patients who smoke was significantly higher compared with in the non-smokers. The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) for ERCC1-negative patients were higher compared with ERCC1-positive patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that ERCC1 expression, pathological staging, and tumor staging were important prognostic factors for NSCLC. Subgroup analysis revealed that the 3-year OS rate for ERCC1-negative patients with stage II-III tumors who received systematic adjuvant chemotherapy was higher compared with ERCC1-negative patients. The 3-year DFS and OS rates for ERCC1-negative patients with squamous carcinoma were higher compared with ERCC1-positive patients. In addition, p38 inhibitor treatment significantly inhibited the mRNA and protein expression levels of ERCC1 in A549 cells, and enhanced the sensitivity of cells to cisplatin. The results of the present study suggest that ERCC1 expression is an important prognostic indicator for NSCLC, particularly for patients with stage II-III tumors who receive systematic platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy.