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Clinical and Translational Oncology

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01-02-2013 | Research Article

Quantitative analysis of EZH2 expression and its correlations with lung cancer patients’ clinical pathological characteristics

Authors: Liyan Wan, Xiao Li, Hong Shen, Xiaoyan Bai

Published in: Clinical and Translational Oncology | Issue 2/2013

Abstract

Introduction

Elevated Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 (EZH2) expression is involved in many human malignancies through epigenetically silencing related genes. However, the study of the EZH2 protein expression in lung cancer remains at the qualitative or semi-quantitative level. The present study is to elucidate the roles of EZH2 in the progression and metastasis of different subtypes of lung cancer at quantitative level.

Materials and methods

Lung carcinoma tissue microarray was constructed containing 32 normal adult lung tissues, 113 lung carcinomas and 57 lymph-node metastases. EZH2 protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and assessed quantitatively with Leica Q500MC image analysis system. Positive unit (PU) value was used to evaluate the protein expression intensity of positive cells from systematically selected fields under the microscope.

Results

Elevated Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 PU in lung carcinomas was significantly greater than that in normal lung tissues (p = 0.001). Increased EZH2 expression was correlated with histological subtypes, differentiation, TNM stage, and lymph-node metastases (p < 0.05). EZH2 PU of primary lung carcinomas was smaller than that of lymph-node metastasis (p = 0.002). EZH2 PU was not associated with patients’ gender, age, smoking status, tumor location, and tumor size (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Elevated Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2 PU is increased with the development of lung cancer. EZH2 may play an important role in the progression and metastasis of lung cancer.

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Title: Quantitative analysis of EZH2 expression and its correlations with lung cancer patients’ clinical pathological characteristics
Authors: Liyan Wan
Xiao Li
Hong Shen
Xiaoyan Bai
Publication date: 01-02-2013
Publisher: Springer Milan
Published in: Clinical and Translational Oncology / Issue 2/2013
Print ISSN: 1699-048X
Electronic ISSN: 1699-3055
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-012-0897-9

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Abstract

Introduction

Materials and methods

Results

Conclusions

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