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Expression of TGF‐beta1 and its relevance to prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung
Author(s) -
Batson Gregory,
Bell Walter,
Jhala Darshanna,
Weiss Heidi,
Grizzle William,
Piyathilake Chandrika
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a215-c
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , basal cell , transforming growth factor , lung , squamous cell carcinoma of the lung , oncology , cancer research , carcinoma , medicine , pathology , clinical significance , political science , law
Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)‐beta has been shown to modulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In most normal epithelial, endothelial, and hematopoetic cells, TGF‐beta acts as a tumor suppressor gene – inhibiting proliferation, promoting cell differentiation and apoptosis. Once tumor cells become resistant to the inhibitory effects of TGF‐beta, both tumor cells and stromal cells within the tumor often increase their TGF‐beta production. Our objective was to determine the clinical significance of TGF‐beta1 in the progression of squamous cell cancer (SCC) of the lung. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate the expression of TGF‐beta1. Our results show that there was a statistically significant increase in TGF‐beta expression in SCC tissue compared to uninvolved tissue (p=0.001). While there was a trend toward increased TGF‐beta expression in SCCs with tumor progression, this finding did not reach statistical significance. The degree of TGF‐betaexpression in SCCs was not significantly associated with survival rate (p=0.58), but more pronounced differences in expression of TGF‐beta between SCCs and basal cells of the uninvolved bronchial epithelium was significantly associated with poor survival (p=0.035). These results suggest that the epithelial localization of TGF‐beta1 may be an important determinant of cancer risk.