Evaluation of Expression and Prognostic Significance of FUNDC1 Protein in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Based on TCGA Database and Clinicopathology

Objective To evaluate the expression of FUNDC1 and its clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer.

Methods We used TCGA database to analyze the difference of mitochondrial receptors (DRP1, BNIP3, FUNDC1, NIX, RHEB, LC3, OPA1 and MFN1) expression between normal and NSCLC tissues, as well as its effect on the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect FUNDC1 expression. The correlations between FUNDC1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, prognosis were evaluated by SPSS 22.0 statistical software.

Results FUNDC1 expression was increased in NSCLC tissues, compared with normal tissues. FUNDC1 expression was related to the degree of differentiation and lymph node metastasis, but not to gender, age, pathological type, distant metastasis or TNM classification. The Cox regression analysis showed that FUNDC1 protein expression, lymph node metastasis, differentiation degree were independent prognostic factors of NSCLC. Increased FUNDC1 expression was related to decreased OS and PFS (P < 0.01).

Conclusion The up-regulation of FUNDC1 expression can affect the prognosis of patients with NSCLC. It may be a new potential target for treating with NSCLC.