Up-regulation of survivin mRNA might be a marker for non-invasive detection of non-small cell lung cancer rather than for prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Survivin suppresses programmed cell death and regulates cell division. To evaluate the prognostic importance of the apoptosis inhibitor survivin for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a study was performed in 64 patients with R0 resections for NSCLC and histopathological stages I-IIIA.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Analysis of survivin mRNA expression was performed on 64 paired tumor and normal tissues by quantitative real-time RT-PCR.

RESULTS: Survivin expression in tumors (median 3.68, min. 0.19, max. 28.63) was significantly higher (p < 0.04) than in corresponding normal tissues (median 1.68, min. 0.03, max. 155.59). Survivin mRNA was up-regulated in tumors of 42 patients (66%). However, survivin overexpression did not correlate with survival of lung cancer patients. There was no significant association of survivin mRNA levels with histological type (p = 0.29), pT (p = 0.41) and pN categories (p = 0.57), grading of the primary tumor (p = 0.45), or histopathological stage (p = 0.87).

CONCLUSION: Overexpression of survivin mRNA in NSCLC might be a marker for noninvasive tumor detection, but has no prognostic importance.