Significance of epidermal growth factor expression and its receptor in nonª²small cell lung cancer

    LI Xinª²Ju, LIANG Jingª²Ren, DENG Yuan

    1Department of Thoracic Surgery, 2Department of Pathology, First Hospital, Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710061, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the relation between the expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF) as well as its receptor(EGFR)and clinical biological behavior and prognosis of nonª²small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). METHODS: By immunohistochemical method, 33 specimens of nonª²small cell lung cancer and 7 cases of adjacent nonneoplastic lung tissues were examined for the expressions of EGF and EGFR. RESULTS: Of the 33 NSCLC cases, the overexpression rates of EGF and EGFR were 57.6% and 63.6% respectively and the overexpression of EGFR was positively related with TNM stages (P<0.05). The mean survival time was significantly shorter in patients with high EGF and/or EGFR level than that in the patients with low EGF and/or EGFR level (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: EGF and EGFR may play an important role in tumor progression and malignant metastasis of nonª²small cell lung cancer, and their expressions can be of prognostic significance. ......