| In our country, the mortality rate of lung cancer had risen most quickly in cities in recent twenty years. The curative effect has been still unsatisfactory. The invasive growth and metastasis of carcinoma is the main reason of low survival rate in NSCLC. The abnormal cell apoptosis and proliferation are thought concerned with the neoplastic transformation!. The JAK( Janus kinase) - STAT ( signal transducer and activator of transcription) pathway is the molecular biological fundament of signal transduction of cytokines. STAT3 is a member of STAT family. Many studies have showed that STAT3 has the function of suppressing apoptosis, promoting metastasis and stimulating proliferation of tumor cells. There are no reports on the relationship of expression of STAT3 to metastasis and prognosis of lung cancer.In this study, the expression of STAT3 in non - small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance were investigated, and the relationship between STAT3 expression and prognosis was analyzed.MaterialsThe paraffin wax embedded specimens of 71 patients diagnosed with NSCLC were enrolled.. The patients with follow - up data for five years have received operations in the Iiaoning tumor hospital from Des,1997 to Des, 1998. There were 53 males and 18 females, age 33 -70 year old. According to UICC 1997 new standard, stage IA were 17 cases, stage IB 30 cases, stage IIA 10 cases, stage IIB 8 cases, and IIIA 6 cases. By pathological classification, squamous cell carcinoma were 47 cases, adenocarcinoma 20 cases, adeno - squamoma 4 cases. By histological differentatiation, well differentatiation were 19 cases,moderate differentatiation 39 cases and poor differentatiation 13 cases . By lymph node stage, N0 were 48 cases,N1-2 23 cases.MethodsUsing immunohistochemical technique, STAT3 was detected in paraffin wax embeded tumor tissues of 71 patients with non - small cell lung cancer. By microscope , positive cells of STAT3 showed brown - yellow grains in tumor cell . According to the rate of positive cell in total tumor cells, these were classified by three levels : < 5% positive cell ( - ) , above 5% positive cell ( + ) , above 20 % ( + + ). The positive expression is above 20%.The relationships were analyzed by the statistics methods which were between STAT3 expression and age, sex, location of tumor, degree of differentiation, pathologic classification, T, N stage and prognosis.ResultsThe positive expressions of STAT3 were 26 patients in 71. The rate of expression was 36. 62%. The expression intensity of STAT3 was associated with T and TNM stages. The higher T and TNM stages, the more expressions of STAT3. The patients with metastasis of lymph nodes had higher expressions of STAT3 than those who had no metastasis of lymph nodes. The expression of STAT3 was not relative to age, sex, location of tumor, degree of differentiation, pathologic classification. The patients with positive expressions of STAT3 had poorer prognosis than those with negative expressions of STAT3.DiscussionSome studies have showed that lung cancer can secrete some growth factors and cytokines which can stimulate proliferation of tumor cells. STAT3 can takes part in the signal transduction of cytokines and growth factors. It also was confirmed to promote proliferation of tumor cells and suppress apoptosis. In thisstudy, there was certain rate of STAT3 positive expression in NSCLC. It indicated that STAT3 may play a certain role in generation and growth of non - small cell lung cancer.In some researches, people have found that STAT3 can stimulate the invasion and metastasis of some carcinoma including lung cancer with increasing the secretion of MMP and uPA. In this study, the higher invasive degree of primary lesion, the higher rate of STAT3 positive expression. The rate of STAT3 expression of the patients with lymph nodes metastasis was higher than that without lymph nodes metastasis. It implied that STAT3 may have some effects in invasion and lymph nodes metastasis of NSCLC.In this study, the expressi...
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