Clinical Significance to Detect Lunx mRNA of Pre- and Post- chemotherapy in Peripheral Blood of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Objective To detect the expression of Lunx mRNA in circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of no small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with metaphase and advanced stage and to investigate the effect and clinical significance of chemotherapy on circulating tumor cells. Methods Sixty-three patients with NSCLC of metaphase and advanced stage were treated with platinum based chemotherapy. Lunx mRNA of their peripheral blood prior and posterior to the first course and the second course chemotherapy was detected and the curative effect after 2 cycles of chemotherapy was evaluated. Peripheral blood of 10 patients with pulmonary benign lesions and 10 healthy volunteers was used as control. Results The positive rate of Lunx mRNA in NSCLC patients was 73.02% before chemotherapy, and in the control group was zero. The expression of Lunx mRNA had no close correlation with age, gender, pathological types and performance status score, and was closely related to clinical stages（P=0.05）. After two cycles of chemotherapy,the patients reached CR, PR, SD and PD were 0,21,23,16 respectively. The positive rates of NSCLC patients after first and second cycles of chemotherapy were both 38.33%,which was significant decreased compared with those before therapy（P=0.00）. The expression rates of Lunx mRNA in patients with PR, SD and PD were 23.81%, 26.09% and 75.00% respectively. The positive rates of PR and SD were significantly decreased compared with that prior to therapy (P=0.01 and P=0.00, respectively）. But the positive rates of PD was similar to that of prior treatment （P=0.65）. Conclusion Lunx mRNA was a favourable tumor marker to predict micrometastases in NSCLC patients. Lunx mRNA expression in peripheral blood was highly correlated with clinical stage of NSCLC patients. The positive rate of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood was markedly decreased in patients with PR or SD, rather than that with PD. The descent of positive rate was not a course-depended.It suggests that the detection of Lunx mRNA in peripheral blood should be able to optimize therapeutic strategies.