Downregulation of EIF4A2 in non-small-cell lung cancer associates with poor prognosis.

BACKGROUND: EIF4A2, which belongs to the eukaryotic initiation factor 4A family, is a highly conserved gene for one of the protein-synthesis initiation factors involved in the binding of messenger RNA to the ribosome. The role of EIF4A2 in some cancers, eg, breast cancer and melanoma, has been studied. However, the clinical significance and biologic role of EIF4A2 in lung cancer remains unknown.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 170 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who were undergoing surgical resection were studied. We applied the tissue microarray by using immunohistochemistry to study the expression of EIF4A2 in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

RESULTS: We found that the expression rate of EIF4A2 in NSCLC was 87.6%. The expression of EIF4A2 was significantly correlated with the histopathologic classification (P = .049) and tumor grade (P < .019). Moreover, NSCLC patients with low EIF4A2 expression survived shorter than those with high EIF4A2 expression, as indicated by overall survival (P = .023) and disease-free survival (P = .011) assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. In addition, multivariate analysis suggested EIF4A2 as an independent predictor of disease-free survival (hazard ratio 0.543 [95% CI, 0.329-0.897]; P = .017).

CONCLUSION: Collectively, our study demonstrated that EIF4A2 was remarkably involvement in the development of NSCLC and could be served as a potential prognostic marker for patients with this deadly disease.