[Expression of EGFR, survivn and hnRNPA2/B1 in bronchial brushing cytology specimens and their significance in diagnosis of lung cancer].

Objective: To study the expression of EGFR, survivn and hnRNPA2/B1 proteins in ThinPrep bronchial brushing cytology specimens and their significance in diagnosis of lung cancer.

Methods: The protein expression of EGFR, survivn and hnRNPA2/B1 was detected by immunocytochemistry (ICC) in the specimens from 110 cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 32 cases of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 37 cases of non-neoplastic lung lesions. The relationship between EGFR, survivn and hnRNPA2/B1 protein expression and clinical characteristics of the patients was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software.

Results: (1) Positive expression was observed in 81.1% of NSCLC for EGFR, 66.2% for survivn, 90.9% for hnRNPA2/B1, significantly higher in NSCLC than in the control specimens (P = 0.000, P = 0.000, P = 0.010). The positive expression rate of hnRNPA2/B1 in SCLC was 92.3%, significantly higher than that in the control specimens (P = 0.021). (2) The expression of EGFR was associated with differentiation (P = 0.003), clinical stage (P = 0.023) and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.038), but was not associated with gender, age and histological types. The survivn expression was not related with the above mentioned clinicopathological features (P>0.05). Expression of hnRNPA2/B1 was associated with clinical stage (P = 0.017), but not associated with gender, age, histological type, differentiation and lymph node metastasis. (3) There was a significant difference between the co-expression of EGFR and survivn in NSCLC (98.0%) and benign conditions (2.0%, P = 0.000), also a significant difference between the negative expression of both EGFR and survivn in NSCLC (38.2%) and nonneoplastic lesions (61.8%, P = 0.000).

Conclusions: Analysis of EGFR, survivn and hnRNPA2/B1 expression may be an useful adjunct method to stratify controversial cases. The positive expression of EGFR might be associated with invasion, progression and poor prognosis of NSCLC.