Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the expression of Fascin_1 protein in cancer tissues of patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its relevance to patients' clinicopathologic features and prognosis.
Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on 81 patients with NSCLC who were admitted to our hospital and received surgical treatment from February 2012 to March 2016. To analyze the correlation of Fascin_1 protein expression in cancer tissues with the clinicopathologic features and prognosis of the patients, the immuno-histochemical method was applied to examine Fascin_1 protein expression in cancer and normal paracarcinoma tissues of the included 81 NSCLC patients.
Results: Fascin_1 protein was diffused in cancer tissues, and cancer cells surrounding the carcinoma lesions were strongly stained. The protein was mainly located on the cytoplast or membrane of positive cells and manifested as a focal or diffuse brown granular distribution. The negative, weakly positive, and strongly positive expression rates in cancer tissues were 23.5% (19/81), 35.8% (29/81), and 40.7% (33/81), respectively. The negative, weakly positive, and strongly positive expression rates in paracarcinoma tissues were 71.6% (58/81), 12.3% (10/81), and 16% (13/81), respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05), and the positive expression rate of Fascin_1 in cancer tissues was significantly higher than that of in paracarcinoma tissues (P < 0.05). The positive expression of Fascin_1 in cancer tissues was significantly correlated with the neoplasm stage (P < 0.05) and mediastinal lymph node metastases (P < 0.05); however, it was not relevant to the patients' age, gender, tumor size, pathological type, tumor grading, or pleural effusion (P > 0.05). The median survival times for patients with positive Fascin_1 and negative Fascin_1 expression in cancer tissues were 26 and 44 months, respectively, indicating that the median survival time of the Fascin_1-positive group was significantly lower than that of in the Fascin_1-negative group (heart rate = 2.74, 95% confidence interval: 1.32-6.87, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Fascin_1 protein expression in NSCLC tissues and normal paracarcinoma issues were different. Fascin_1 expression in cancer tissues was related to the poor prognosis of NSCLC patients.
Keywords: Cancer tissue; clinical features; expression; fascin_1 protein; nonsmall cell lung cancer.