Objective: To explore the relationship between the expression of excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) and class III ß-tubulin and the clinical characteristics and overall survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis was used to determine the protein expression of ERCC1 and class III ß-tubulin in 160 completely resected NSCLC primary tumor samples, 50 of which were paired with adjacent normal tissue samples and another 40 benign lung lesion tissue samples as controls. Clinical data at baseline, disease-free survival and overall survival were also collected. Univariate and multivariate Cox models were used to analyze the risk factors.
Results: In 160 tumor samples, the ERCC1 and class III ß-tubulin positive rates obtained with immunohistochemistry were 46.9% and 49.4%, respectively. Both biomarkers had a higher positive rate in male patients. For patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy, ERCC1 positivity was associated with longer survival (median survival time 73 vs 53 months, p=0.041), while in patients treated with platinum chemotherapy, ERCC1 positivity tended to be associated with poor survival (median survival time 41 vs 54 months, p=0.014). Class III ß-tubulin positivity was also associated with poor survival (median survival time 38 vs 58 months, p<0.001), but had no influence on the survival of patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy.
Conclusions: ERCC1 and class III ß-tubulin could be important survival predictors for completely resected NSCLC patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. Further prospective studies need to be performed to test this hypothesis in Chinese patients.