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HOXB2 as a novel prognostic indicator for stage I lung adenocarcinomas.

Inamura K, Togashi Y, Okui M, Ninomiya H, Hiramatsu M, Satoh Y, Okumura S, Nakagawa K, Shimoji T, Noda T

Department of Pathology, The Cancer Institute, The Cancer Institute Hospital, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan.

BACKGROUND: Outcomes of patients with lung adenocarcinomas can be predicted to some extent from the pathologic stage (p-stage). Although all attempts are made to fully remove cancer lesions, still a number of p-stage I patients without metastatic disease at the time of surgery develop recurrences and die of cancer. It is thus very important to identify p-stage I patients who are at risk of recurrence. METHODS: Previously, using microdissected samples, we identified metastasis-related genes. Using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis, we investigated the transcriptional levels of the top metastasis-related genes using 96 independent test lung adenocarcinoma samples and investigated their correlations with the prognosis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We document evidence that p-stage I patients with HOXB2 up-regulation have a worse prognosis than those with HOXB2 down-regulation (p = 0.0065), whereas the HOXB2 status has no prognostic significance for p-stage II-IV patients. Comparing tumors and corresponding normal lung tissue, we confirmed HOXB2 up-regulated lesions to have much higher HOXB2 expression than the corresponding normal tissue. Confirmation with a larger number of samples is needed, with further research to clarify the molecular functions of HOXB2.

Published 6 September 2007 in J Thorac Oncol, 2(9): 802-7.
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