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Clinical significance of caspase‐3 expression in pathologic‐stage I, nonsmall‐cell lung cancer
Author(s) -
Takata Tetsuya,
Tanaka Fumihiro,
Yamada Tomoko,
Yanagihara Kazuhiro,
Otake Yosuke,
Kawano Yozo,
Nakagawa Tatsuo,
Miyahara Ryo,
Oyanagi Hiroki,
Inui Kenji,
Wada Hiromi
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.10347
Subject(s) - apoptosis , clinical significance , caspase 3 , lung cancer , caspase , stage (stratigraphy) , medicine , cancer , immunohistochemistry , pathology , incidence (geometry) , cancer research , oncology , programmed cell death , biology , paleontology , biochemistry , physics , optics
Caspase‐3 is a cysteine protease that plays an important role in the process of apoptotic cell death. Whereas many studies on the clinical significance of apoptosis in the therapy of malignant tumors have been reported, little has been studied clinically on caspase‐3. In the present study, the clinical significance of caspase‐3 expression in resected nonsmall‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its correlation with incidence of apoptosis were examined. A total of 118 consecutive patients who had undergone complete resection for pathologic Stage I NSCLC were retrospectively reviewed. Caspase‐3 expression was examined immunohistochemically using a polyclonal antibody that recognized uncleaved caspase‐3. The 5‐year survival rate for patients with strong expression of caspase‐3 (66.6%) was significantly lower than that for patients with weak expression (82.1%, P = 0.021). Expression of caspase‐3 was not correlated with incidence of apoptosis, proliferative activity, or p53 status. Multivariate analysis confirmed that strong expression of caspase‐3 was a significant factor to predict poor prognosis. These results suggest that enhanced expression of “uncleaved” caspase‐3, that is, inactivated caspase‐3, was correlated with poor prognosis in resected NSCLC. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.