High syndecan-1 expression is associated with favourable outcome in squamous cell lung carcinoma treated with radical surgery

Expression of syndecan-1 is down-regulated in many cellular transformation models. We studied the clinical significance of syndecan-1 expression in 11 6 squamous cell lung carcinomas treated with radical surgery. Paraffin-embe dded tissue samples were immunostained with two antibodies against human sy ndecan-1 (B-B4 and 104-9). Syndecan-1 expression was higher in well differe ntiated cancers than in moderately or poorly differentiated cancers with ti ther antibody (P = 0.001 fur B-B4, and P < 0.0001 for 104-9). but no signif icant association was found with the primary tumour size (T-stage) or the c linical stage. When the median expression (10% of cancer cells positive in B-B4 staining) was used as the cut-off value. cancers with high expression were associated with more Favourable survival than those with low expressio n (the 2-year survival rate corrected for intercurrent deaths 84% vs 61%. P = 0.026). However, syndecan-1 expression was not an independent prognostic factor in a multivariate survival analysis. We conclude that syndecan-1 ex pression decreases in parallel with histological dedifferentiation in squam ous cell carcinoma of the lung, and that low syndecan-1 expression is assoc iated with unfavourable outcome. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.