Expression of prothymosin α in lung cancer is associated with squamous cell carcinoma and smoking

Abstract

Prothymosin α (ProTα) is a nuclear protein that serves a role in oncogenesis, by promoting proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis in various malignancies. The present study was designed to investigate ProTα expression in resected human non-small cell lung cancer to define the clinicopathological associations of ProTα-positive lung cancer. Immunohistochemical staining of ProTα was performed using tumor sample slides from 149 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, who underwent surgical resection. Association between the expression of ProTα and the following clinicopathological parameters was accessed: Age, sex, stage, lymph node involvement, pathological subtype, recurrence and cigarette smoking. A total of 85 tumors (57%) were classified as ProTα-positive lung cancer by staining intensity and 73 tumors (49%) were regarded as ProTα-positive by scoring index. The majority of patients with ProTα-positive tumors were younger (P=0.05) and had squamous cell carcinoma (P<0.01) compared with older and adenocarcinoma. Positive expression of ProTα by staining intensity was associated with a higher incidence rate of cancer recurrence (P=0.05) compared with negative ProTα expression. ProTα was also associated with cigarette smoking, particularly in the group with squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, the present data suggested that ProTα-positive non-small cell lung cancer was associated with younger patients, squamous cell carcinoma, cigarette smoking and a higher incidence recurrence rate, subsequently indicating a subtype consisting of patients with smoking-associated inferior outcomes.

First Evidence of the Expression and Localization of Prothymosin α in Human Testis and Its Involvement in Testicular Cancers

“…Indeed, if on one hand, the role of PTMA, as a consequence of its proliferative properties, in the insurgence/progression of several cancers has been extensively demonstrated [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], on the other, just a few papers described its function in the differentiative processes leading to spermatozoa production [ 25 ]. In our previous works, we proposed a role for PTMA in the meiotic and post-meiotic phases of spermatogenesis, due to its involvement in the acrosome biogenesis and acrosome-nuclear docking, as a result of its interaction with perinuclear theca proteins [ 28 ].…”

“…If, on one hand, the cytoplasmic role of PTMA is far from being completely understood, many reports demonstrated its crucial role for survival and proliferation of normal and cancer cells [ 5 , 6 ], such as squamous cell carcinoma of the breast [ 7 ], head and neck [ 8 ], hepatocellular carcinoma [ 9 , 10 ], lung cancer [ 10 , 11 ], gallbladder cancer [ 12 ], colorectal cancer [ 13 ], etc.…”