[The expression of survivin messenger RNA in sputum and cancerous tissue in human lung cancer].

Objective: To study the diagnostic significance of the expression of survivin mRNA in transbronchial biopy samples and sputum samples in lung cancer.

Methods: The resected lung cancer tissues and their para-carcinomatous normal tissue specimens of 41 patients with lung cancer and tissue specimens of 9 patients with benign pulmonary diseases were studied. 110 bronchial biopsy specimens from 80 patients with lung cancer and 30 patients with benign pulmonary diseases and their 160 sputum samples were also evaluated. RT-PCR was performed for the detection of survivin mRNA expression in specimens. The results were compared with their histological or cytological examinations.

Results: (1) The positive rate of survivin mRNA in resected lung cancer tissues (29/41; 70.7%) was higher than that in the para-carcinomatous normal tissues (7/41; 17.1%) and the benign pulmonary tissues (1/9; 11.1%, P < 0.05). There was no statistical difference (P > 0.05) in the positive rate of survivin mRNA between para-carcinomatous normal tissues and the benign pulmonary disease tissues. In the bronchial biopsy samples, the positive rate of survivin mRNA in 80 lung cancer tissues (51/80; 63.8%) was also higher than that in the benign pulmonary tissues (4/30; 13.3%, P < 0.05). There were no relationships between survivin mRNA expression and age, sex, histopathological subtype, differentiation, or lymph node metastases of the patients. The sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis for lung cancer by detecting survivin mRNA in resected cancer tissue and transbronchial biopsy tissue were 63.8% - 70.7% and 86.7% - 88.9%, respectively. (2) The sensitivity of cytological examinations combined with detecting survivin mRNA in sputum samples was higher than that of either cytological examination or survivin mRNA detection of sputum samples alone (P < 0.05). The sensitivity of the diagnosis for lung cancer increased from 47.1% (sputum cytology alone) to 80.2% (sputum survivin mRNA detection combined with sputum cytology, P < 0.05) and the negative predictive value increased from 37.9% for sputum cytology alone to 57.9% (P < 0.01) for sputum survivin mRNA detection combined with sputum cytology. The specificity did not change significantly.

Conclusions: Detecting survivin mRNA expression from bronchial biopsy specimens might be used as one of the specific molecular markers for diagnosis of lung cancer, while the detection of survivin mRNA from sputum samples as a new ancillary diagnostic method for lung cancer.