Clinical Study On The Expression Of STK33 Gene In Patients With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Background and objective:Serine/threonine kinase 33 is a non-oncogene which recently discovered in the course of sequencing the human chromosome region 11p15.3. Chromosome 11p15.3 is a gene-rich region of clinical importance because several human diseases have been mapped there. We study the expression of STK33 in patients with NSCLC to identify the role of STK33 in the tumorigenesis and development of NSCLC.Methods:We evaluated STK33 mRNA and protein expression in NSCLC tissue samples from patients using real-time qPCR and Western blot.33 specimens from selected patients diagnosed at Kunhua Hospital from the April to the September of 2009 were used for the study, including 24 lung cancer cases and 9 lung benign disease cases. Then we divided the 24 lung cancer cases into lung carcinoma group and distal cancerous tissues group.Finally, we classified distal cancerous tissues group and lung benign disease cases group as control group.Results:The real-time qPCR study demonstrated that the level of STK33 mRNA in NSCLC (△CT=8.7±2.0) was significantly higher than distal cancerous ones (△CT=9.7±1.4) or those of lung benign disease group (△CT=10.5±0.9)(P< 0.05). But the STK33 expression was not associated with gender, age, smoking history, tumor size, histological type, differentiation degree, cancer stage, or lymph node metastasis in NSCLC patients(P> 0.05). In the NSCLC cases and control group cases which had significant difference in mRNA expression, we also found that there was a significant difference between the STK33 protein expression of NSCLC cases and control group cases detected by western blot.Conclusion:STK33 appears to play a central role in tumorigenesis and development of NSCLC.