Expression of Endothelin-1 and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer

 

The upregulation or alteration of the physiological functions of growth factors may lead to an unbalanced growth of the cell. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is an important growth stimulator in various neoplastic diseases and a large body of studies demonstrated ET-1 overexpression in many malignancies. In our study we evaluated the expression of ET-1 and its receptors in a series of 201 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and corresponding normal samples.

Our data demonstrated that ET-1 mRNA expression was statistically related to reduced overall survival and disease-free interval. This data may have remarkable importance in terms of biological characterization, suggesting that ET-1 may add useful information regarding the clinical evaluation of NSCLC progression, and that it may represent a potential target for an antiangiogenic therapy using selective ET receptor antagonists.

 

Reference:

Boldrini L et al.: "Expression of endothelin-1 is related to poor prognosis in non-small cell lung carcinoma", Eur J Cancer. 2005 Dec;41(18):2828-35. Epub 2005 Nov 17

 

Laura Boldrini
Department of Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy