Abstract

Expression of EGFR and c-Met in NSCLC: Real-time quantitative PCR as a alternative to immunohistochemistry for prognosis

Author(s): Ting Ai, Li-ping Song, Ning Wang, Wei-wei Li

This research is to investigate the effect of EGFR and c-Met in the tumorigenesis, proliferation and prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We present 61 cases of NSCLC here, and detected the expression level of EGFR and c-Met by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The relativity of these two groups and the relationship with clinicopathologic features and prognosis were analyze. Significant correlations was only found in high level of EGFR and c-Met expression and tumor differentiation in IHC. And there were significant correlations between the two genes expression and smoke status and histology type in qRT-PCR. Significant positive correlationswere found between the expression status of EGFR and that of c-Met in protein and gene levels (r= 0.303, P = 0.018 and r = 0.352, P=0.005, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that expression status of EGFR and c-Met detected by qRT-PCR not IHC and lymph node invasion were independent prognostic factor.