Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer (Dec 2008)
The expression and clinical significance of heparanase in non-small cell lung cancer
Abstract
Background and objective It has been proven that heparanase played an important role in tumorigenesis. The aim of this work is to investigate the level of expression of heparanase protein in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to explore the relationship between heparanase expression and NSCLC histological types and prognosis. Methods Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the heparanase expression in the routinely paraffin-embedded sections of surgical specimen of 66 cases with NSCLC and 15 ones with normal lung tissues. Results Heparanase was highly expressed in lung cancer tissues (74.2％) while negative in epithelia of normal lung tissues. Theexpression of heparanase was significantly correlated with TNM stage (P =0.042) and lymphatic metastasis (P =0.005). The patients with positive heparanase expression had a significantly shorter survival rate than those with negative heparanase expression (P =0.025). Conclusion Heparanase has more expression in NSCLC than normal lung tissues. It was correlated with TNM stage and lymphatic metastasis and prognosis of NSCLC. However, heparanase expression is not an independent prognostic factor.
