Clinicopathologic Significance Of ERBB3 MRNA Expression In Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: ERBB3, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family. A previous report has suggested that overexpression of ERBB3 protein was associated with lung cancer recurrence and with shorter survival in advanced non-small-cell lung carcinomas(NSCLC). But ERBB3 mRNA expression of NSCLC is rarely reported.So this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic significance of ERBB3 mRNA expression in non-small cell lung cancer.METHODS: We collected 692 surgically removed NSCLC paraffin-embedded tissues of NSCLC after operation and 48 paraffin-embedded tissues of pulmonary bulla.And then proceed with RNA extractions, reverse transcriptions, and pre-amplification. Real-time RT-PCR was used to quantify ERBB3 mRNA expression.The correlation between ERBB3 mRNA expression and several Clinicopathologic parameter were analyzed using SPSS software package.RESULTS: The ERBB3 mRNA relative expression quantity is 1.245±1.029; There were no significant differences of ERBB3 mRNA expression between NSCLC tissues and pulmonary bulla tissues(P=0.399). The ERBB3 mRNA relative expression levels were significantly higher in female than in male (P=0.002), higher in nonsmoker than in smoker (P=0.037), higher in adenocarcinoma than in other types of lung cancers (P<0.0001).However,The ERBB3 mRNA levels were not significantly different in patients with age(≤60 or>60)or whether the tumor had lymph node metastasis status.No significant difference was seen between any pathologic stages of lung cancer. There was no difference of prognosis between the group of low ERBB3 mRNA levels(>0.912) and the group of high ERBB3 Mrna levels (<0.912)(Log-rank test,P=0.935)CONCLUSION: 1. The ERBB3 mRNA expression levels in tumor tissue was not significantly different from that in nonmalignant lung tissue.2.These data suggest that in female,never-smoked with adenocarcinoma, increased expression of ERBB3 might have an important role in NSCLC.