Influence of expression of selected genes encoding proteins and microRNA on the risk of stage 1 pulmonary adenocarcinoma relapse
Abstract
Introduction: Adjuvant chemotherapy has become an integral part of radical operated patients with lung cancer stages 2, 3 and then 1B larger than 4 cm. For smaller tumors (stages 1B and 1A), the benefits of this treatment was not demonstrated for the overall patient population.
However, it is known that the risk of disease recurrence following surgical removal of the tumor is not negligible. Our aim was to assess the relationship of expression of selected protein-coding genes and microRNA to time to disease progression (DFI) and overall survival (OS) in patients with lung adenocarcinomas low stages and to try to find a possible marker of risk of disease recurrence and thus identify the patient population who could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.
Patients and Methods: Our study included 42 patients (31 males and 11 females, except the 4 patients were all smokers or former smokers) with radically-operated lung adenocarcinoma stages 1A and 1B without adjuvant chemotherapy administered. Expression of mRNA of selected miRNA was measured by quantitative RT PCR in tumor tissue obtained by macrodicetion from formalin fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue biopsies.
It was analyzed the relationship between gene expression levels of selected mRNA and miRNA and DFI and OS. Results: Of the total set of mRNA and microRNA of interest we showed no statistically significant relationship between their expression and DFI / OS.
We demonstrated a significant relationship between the mRNA level of BRCA1 and OS only in the subgroup of smokers / former smokers. Conclusion: In the upcoming routine FFPE tumor samples we demonstrated a relationship between shorter OS and the level of BRCA1 in the subgroup of smokers / former smokers.
This result, however, due to the small number of files, need to be confirmed by other studies.