Diagnostic and prognostic significance of E-cadherin and Ki-67 expression in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the relationship between E-cadherin (E-cad) and Ki-67, and to determine their clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 68 NSCLC paraffin embedded tissue specimens and tumor-adjacent normal tissue specimens were collected. The expression of E-cad and Ki-67 was examined by immunohistochemistry and the relationships between the expression of these two markers were evaluated. The clinicopathological features were correlated with the expression of E-cad and Ki-67 to check whether these proteins have any association and if exist an association whether E-cad and Ki-67 can be used in diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLSC.

RESULTS: E-cad was expressed in all the normal tissues but Ki-67 expressed in only 5.8% of normal tissues. Ki-67 and E-cad expression were observed in 61.8% and 25% of NSCLC tissues respectively. Correlation analysis revealed an inverse association between the expression of E-cad and Ki-67 (r = 0.524, p = 0.000). The clinicopathological features such as tumor differentiation, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and pleural invasion were all significantly associated with E-cad and Ki-67 expression (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: E-cad and Ki-67 together play a key role in the development, invasion and metastasis of NSCLC and combined detection of them serve as a potential marker for clinical diagnosis in addition to exploiting them as a therapeutic target.