Background: 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. The expression 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).
Conclusions: 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.