Open AccessRetinoic Acid Receptor-β Expression in Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Adjacent Normal Appearing Bronchial Epithelium
Author(s) -
Yoon Soo Chang,
Jae Ho Chung,
Dong Hwan Shin,
Kwansoo Chung,
Young Sam Kim,
Joon Chang,
Sung Kyu Kim,
Se Kyu Kim
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
yonsei medical journal/yonsei medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.702
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1976-2437
pISSN - 0513-5796
DOI - 10.3349/ymj.2004.45.3.435
Subject(s) - retinoic acid receptor beta , lung cancer , carcinogenesis , retinoic acid , epithelium , adenocarcinoma , pathology , cancer research , immunohistochemistry , retinoic acid receptor , cancer , medicine , biology , cell culture , genetics
Retinoic acid receptor-beta (RAR-beta) is induced by and mediates the growth-inhibitory and apoptotic effects of retinoic acid (RA), suggesting that loss of RAR-beta expression may be one of the critical events involved in the carcinogenesis/ progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in the responsiveness to retinoid chemotherapy. However, recent contradictory reports that the expression of RAR-beta is associated with poor clinical outcome, and the fact that treatment of serum-deprived type 2 alveolar cells with RA leads to a stimulation of cell proliferation, require the verification of RAR-beta as a biomarker of chemoprevention or prognosis. The expression status of RAR-beta in cancer cells and adjacent normal appearing bronchial epithelium from 39 patients, diagnosed as stage I NSCLC and undergone a curative lung resection, was analyzed in paraffin-embedded tissue sections by IHC staining. The normal appearing bronchial epithelium of 14 out of 33 (42.4%) specimens expressed RAR-beta, whereas 22 out of the 39 (56.4%) stage I NSCLC specimens expressed RAR-beta. RAR-beta was more frequently expressed in the adenocarcinoma (72.7%) than in the squamous cell carcinoma (31.3%) (p=0.026). Neither the expression status in normal appearing adjacent tissue nor that in the tumor tissue had prognostic implications. The higher expression of RAR-beta in cancer tissue, the focal and uneven distribution in normal appearing adjacent bronchial epithelium, and inconsistency with the corresponding tumor tissue, suggest that the expression status of RAR-beta as a biomarker for chemoprevention/early diagnosis or the prognosis of NSCLC requires further consideration.