CO-examination of WWOX and ErbB2 Protein in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Objective To study the expression and significance of WWOX gene in non-small cell lung cancer and the relationship with ErbB2 protein. Methods WWOX protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 50 squamous cell carcinomas,31 adenocarcinomas and 20 adjacent normal lung tissues, and its correlation with clinical and histopathologic characteristics and the expression of ErbB2 protein were analyzed. Results WWOX expression was absent/reduced in 72.8% of NSCLC,whereas it was normal in 80.0% of adjacent normal lung tissues.WWOX expression was strongly associated with tumor histology and histologic grade（P<0.05),the percentage of cases with absent/strongly reduced WWOX expression was higher in squamous cell carcinomas and in poorly differentiated tumors.The overexpression of ErbB2 was associated with TNM stage and Lymph node metastasis.Finally,WWOX expression was negatively related to the overexpression of ErbB2(r=-0.239，P<0.05). Conclusion The low expression of WWOX expression and the overexpression of ErbB2 can estimate the prognosis of NSCLC.