Expression and mutation of the c-kit gene and correlation with prognosis of small cell lung cancer

Lu,Hong-Yang; Zhang,Gu; Cheng,Qiao-Yuan; Chen,Bo; Cai,Ju-Fen; Wang,Xiao-Jia; Zhang,Yi-Ping; Wang,Zeng; Lu,Zhen-Yi; Xie,Fa-Jun; Mao,Wei-Min

doi:10.3892/ol.2012.679

Expression and mutation of the c-kit gene and correlation with prognosis of small cell lung cancer

Authors:
- Hong-Yang Lu
- Gu Zhang
- Qiao-Yuan Cheng
- Bo Chen
- Ju-Fen Cai
- Xiao-Jia Wang
- Yi-Ping Zhang
- Zeng Wang
- Zhen-Yi Lu
- Fa-Jun Xie
- Wei-Min Mao
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Affiliations: Zhejiang Key Laboratory Diagnosis and Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Esophagus, Lung), Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China, Department of Pathology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang Institute for Food and Drug Control, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310004, P.R. China, Department of Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China, Department of Pharmacology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China, Xiangshan First People's Hospital, Xiangshan, Zhejiang 315700, P.R. China
Published online on: April 12, 2012 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2012.679
Pages: 89-93

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Abstract

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive and lethal type of cancer in humans. SCLC is sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but long-term survival is low and the majority of patients eventually develop progressive disease. With the success of imatinib mesylate in the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors expressing c-kit, its use in SCLC serves as a novel molecular therapeutic approach. The activity of imatinib mesylate is correlated with the mutation of c-kit gene exons 9 and 11 in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The incidence of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in non-small cell lung cancer is higher in China than in the United States of America and European countries. There may be also differences in the incidence of c-kit mutation between China and European countries. At present, no study examining imatinib mesylate treatment for SCLC in China is available. To investigate the expression and mutation of c-kit and the correlation with prognosis of SCLC in China, immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of c-kit, and a pyrosequencing assay was used to detect mutations in c-kit exons 9 and 11 of 36 SCLC patients who received surgical treatment at the Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China, between 1998 and 2010. All 36 patients were followed up to analyze the correlation between prognosis and expression and mutation of c-kit. The incidence of c-kit-positive expression was 83.3%, including 25.0% weak staining, 22.2% moderate staining and 36.1% strong staining. The overall survival of patients with c-kit strong staining was shorter compared to patients with c-kit not strong staining. No mutation in c-kit exons 9 and 11 was detected. In conclusion, the findings showed that the expression of c-kit is high, and strong staining is a prognostic factor for worse survival.

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