BCL-2 protein expression correlates with nodal status in nonsmall cell lung cancer

We investigated the immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 in 55 non small cell lung cancer patients in order to understand if the altered expression of this gene is involved in the development of this kind of neoplasm. Our results showed bcl-2 immunopositivity to be a frequent event in non small c ell lung cancer (54.5%) with a higher expression in squamous carcinomas com pared to adenocarcinomas (p=.04). In addition, we found a positive correlat ion between bcl-2 expression levels and nodal status (p<.003). We suggest t hat bcl-2 immunostaining could be considered as marker of locoregional inva sivity.