Cell motility as a prognostic factor in stage I nonsmall cell lung carcinoma - The role of gelsolin expression

BACKGROUND, Tumor cell motility is an important characteristic that facilit ates the multistep process of tumor metastasis. Rac, ABP-280, and gelsolin are proteins that interact with actin and are important in cell motility. METHODS, The authors studied a cohort of 229 Stage I nonsmall cell lung car cinoma (NSCLC) patients who had a minimum of 3 years follow-up and had been previously analyzed for 22 clinical, pathologic, and molecular features, o f which 9 had been found to provide significant prognostic information in a Cox proportional hazards model. Tumor sections were stained by the avidin- biotin complex method using monoclonal antibodies against rac, ABP-280, and gelsolin. RESULTS. In a pilot analysis of over 50 patients each, rac and ABP-280 were found to be moderately-to-highly expressed in the majority of tumors and t o provide no prognostic information. Gelsolin expression was more variable and appeared to be negatively correlated with survival in the pilot populat ion In the larger 229-patient population, high focal gelsolin expression wa s seen in 32 tumors (14%) and conferred the highest relative risk (4.04) of cancer recurrence among all factors tested, compared with tumors that had no or low gelsolin expression. Moderate focal gelsolin expression, seen in 46 patients (20%), also conferred a significant risk of cancer recurrence, with a relative risk of 2.26 compared with tumors that had no or low gelsol in expression. Consideration of average gelsolin expression and of overall survival yielded similar results. CONCLUSIONS. Gelsolin expression appears to be a significant prognostic fac tor for cancer recurrence in cases of Stage I NSCLC. Cancer 1999;85:47-57. (C) 1999 American Cancer Society.