Ming-hui Zhang¹, Shu Zhao¹, Muhong Wang², Xueyan Zhang³, Yan Wang⁴, Maopeng Yang¹, Yanbo Wang², Jiangwei Yu², Yan Wang¹

¹Department of Medical Oncology, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, ²Department of surgical Oncology, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, ³Department of Clinical Laboratory, Hospital of Northeast Agricultural University, ⁴Department of Medical Oncology, Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital

Objective:Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a refractory subtype of lung cancer characterized by limited drug responses, aggressive metastasis and relapse at relatively earlystage when compared to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Worsestill, lack of prognostic markers and therapeutic targets for SCLC largely restricts long-term success of clinical intervention. In order to evaluatesurvivin and thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) as potential prognostic marker for SCLC, their expression levels were measuredand analyzed for correlation with some major clinicopathological parameters of SCLC. Method: In current study, a total of 68 patients were involved and their expression levels of survivin and TTF-1were determined by immunohistochemistry. The expression data were then subjectto association study with SCLC-related clinicopathological variables and the prognostic value of survivin and TTF-1 expression were assessed. Result: Survivin expression has been observed in 75% (51/68) of all samples and TTF-1 in 83.8% (57/68). Survivin expression is significantly related to clinical stage (P=0.012), lymph node metastasis (P=0.034), serum NSE levels (P=0.048) and serum LDH levels (P=0.019) while TTF-1 expression is significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.034). Univariate analysis showed that clinicalstage, lymph node metastasis, serum NSE levels, serum LDH levels, survivin and TTF-1 arepositively correlated with overall survival (OS). Further multivariate analysis demonstrated that lymph node metastasis, serum LDH levels and survivin areindependent predictors of OS. Conclusion: Ourstudy indicates that survivin and TTF-1 are useful prognostic markers for SCLC and might provide novel targets for future anti-SCLC therapy.

Key Words: TTF-1  survivin  prognosis