Nanog, a novel prognostic marker for lung cancer

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the expression of the stem cell marker Nanog in lung cancer tissues and the correlations between Nanog expression and clinic-pathologic characteristics as well as prognosis of lung cancer.

Methods: 163 patients with lung cancers enrolled in the study. The expression of Nanog in the cell lines and lung cancers were evaluated by RT-PCR, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemisty. Then, the correlations between Nanog expression status and clinic-pathologic characteristics and prognosis of lung cancer patients were analyzed.

Results: It showed that Nanog are higher expressed in lung cancer tissues compared to their normal counterparts in both mRNA and protein levels, and Nanog expression was observed to be positively correlated with tumor differentiation and clinical stages of lung cancer patients (P = 0.001 and 0.001). Nanog were mainly localized at the cytoplasm in the brown color in the lung cancers. In addition, nuclear staining of Nanog was more observed in poorly differentiated lung cancers compared to others (P = 0.01). Furthermore, survival analyses showed that over-expression of Nanog protein predicted a worse prognosis for lung cancer patients (P = 0.001).

Conclusion: Nanog can be an important prognostic marker for lung cancer, which may present a new therapeutic target for lung cancer patients in the future.

Keywords: Lung cancer; Marker; Nanog; Stem cell; Survival.