EXPRESSION OF ANGIOPOIETIN-1 IN LUNG ADENOCARCINOMA AND ITS CORRELATION WITH CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES AND PROGNOSIS

Xiaoqin Weng*, Yan Huang**, Xinjun Dai**, Minghui Wu**, #

*Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Discipline, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, PR China - **Department of Oncology and Hematology, Liuyang Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Liuyang, PR China

Objective: To study the expression of angiopoietin-1 in lung adenocarcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis. 

Methods: Ninety-eight cases of lung adenocarcinoma were surgically resected in our hospital and 45 healthy adjacent tissues were collected from May 2017 to June 2018. The positive expression rate of angiopoietin 1 (ANGPT1) protein in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and normal paracancerous tissues was analysed by immunohistochemistry. The correlation between ANGPT1 protein expression and clinicopathological features was analysed by the immunohistochemistry results. The patients were followed up with and the relationship between clinical features and prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma was observed and recorded. 

Results: The positive expression rate of ANGPT1 in lung adenocarcinoma was 75/98 (76.53%), which was significantly higher than that of normal adjacent tissues 9/45 (20%) (P<0.01). In lung adenocarcinoma, the expression of ANGTP1 protein was not related to age, sex and tumour diameter (P>0.05), but was related to the degree of tissue differentiation, lymph node metastasis, TNM staging, tumour invasion of visceral pleura and vascular tumour thrombus (P<0.05). The median survival time of 16.21 months with positive ANGPT1 expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with a negative expression of ANGPT1 of 42.61 months (P<0.01). According to the Cox proportional hazards model, lymph node metastasis, ANGPT1 expression and vascular tumour thrombus were independent risk factors for the prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (P<0.05). 

Conclusion: ANGPT1 is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma, and its positive expression predicts poor prognosis, which can be used as an essential reference for evaluating the prognosis of patients.