Expression and Prognostic Value of AKT2 in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Background and objective AKT2 is a critical actor in the PI3K signal transduction pathway. Activation of AKT2 can lead to cell growth and survival. It has been revealed that AKT2 play a central role in tumorigenesis, tumor growth as well as metastasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between AKT2 and the clinical outcome of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients by detecting its expression levels in the tumor tissue samples. Methods We developed an immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay to measure AKT2 protein levels in lung specimens from 80 cases with NSCLC and 10 cases with benign pulmonary disease. Results The positive rate of AKT2 was 57.50% (46/80) in NSCLC, which was higher than that in benign pulmonary (10.0%) samples (χ2=8.038, P=0.006). There was no significant correlation between AKT2 expression and the clinicopathologic profiles. The expression of AKT2 was significantly correlated with the progression free survival (PFS) ( χ2=12.671, P=0.005) and the overall survival (OS) (χ2=9.851, P=0.021) of patients with NSCLC. Conclusion AKT2 may provide a prognostic bio-marker of NSCLC.

Keywords

• Lung neoplasms
• Human AKT2 protein
• Prognosis