Overexpression And Allelic Deletion Of Metastasis Suppressor Gene Nm23 In Human Lung Cancer

Immunohistochemical methods, Northern blot and restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP) analysis were sused to detect the expression and allelic deletion of metastasis suppressor gene nm23 in 244 cases of formalin-fixed , paraffin- embedded lung tissue sections and 41 paired fresh lung tumor samples. The positive staining rates of nm23 protein in human lung cancer and corresponeing noncancerous lung tissues were 74%(180/244) and 44%(63/144), respectively, The difference was significant (P<0.01). The nm23 protein was equally expressed in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), adenocarcinoma and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) of which the positive staining rates were 66%(73/110), 80%(85/103) and 71%(22/31). The levels of nm23 protein were not correlated with clinicopathological data of adenocarcinoma of the lung. There were significant differences between nm23 protein expression and lymph node metastases in SCC and SCLC. The positive staining rates were higher in SCC(43/56, 77%) and SCLC(13/13, 100%) without hilar or me diastinal lymph node metastaBes than in those (30/54, 56%, SCC;9/18,50%, SCLC) with hilar or mediastinal lymph node metastases. The nm23 protein was equally expressed between...