Flot-2 Expression Correlates with EGFR Levels and Poor Prognosis in Surgically Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 10;10(7):e0132190. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132190. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

We previously reported that expression of Flotillin 2 (Flot-2), a protein isolated from caveolae/lipid raft domains, increased significantly in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) compared with normal tissues. Signal transduction through epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) and Flot-2 play an important role in cancer development, but their precise role in lung cancer has not been investigated. In this study, we have investigated the correlation between the expression of Flot-2 and EGFR, which increase significantly in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (n=352) compared with non-cancer tissues. Additionally, patients with advanced stages of NSCLC had higher positive expression of Flot-2 and EGFR than patients with early stages. NSCLC patients with increased expression of Flot-2 and EGFR had significantly less overall survival rates than patients with less expression of Flot-2 and EGFR. Taken together, our data suggest that increased expression of Flot-2 and EGFR in NSCLC patients is inversely proportional to the disease prognosis and that increased expression of Flot-2 associated with increased EGFR may serve as a biomarker to predict poor disease prognosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / metabolism
  • Adenocarcinoma / pathology
  • Adenocarcinoma / surgery
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / metabolism*
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / pathology
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / surgery*
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / metabolism
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / pathology
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / surgery
  • ErbB Receptors / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Lung Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology
  • Lung Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Male
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism*
  • Middle Aged
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Prognosis
  • Proportional Hazards Models

Substances

  • Membrane Proteins
  • flotillins
  • ErbB Receptors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from The National Natural Sciences Foundations of China (No: 81272566; 81472773) (http://isis.nsfc.gov.cn/).