Annals of Oncology Advance Access originally published online on January 19, 2009
Annals of Oncology 2009 20(5):842-849; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdn727
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
lung cancer |
High coexpression of both insulin-like growth factor receptor-1 (IGFR-1) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is associated with shorter disease-free survival in resected non-small-cell lung cancer patients
1 Division of Medical Oncology, Public Hospital
2 Institute of Pathological Anatomy and Histology, Division of Cancer Research, Perugia University
3 Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Perugia University
4 Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Perugia
5 Regional Cancer Center, Azienda Ospedaliera, Italy
* Correspondence to: Dr V. Ludovini, Division of Medical Oncology, Azienda Ospedaliera "S Maria della Misericordia", Via G. Dottori, 1, 06156 Perugia, Italy. Tel: +39-075-5783453; Fax: +39-075-5729946; E-mail: oncolab{at}hotmail.com
Background: Insulin-like growth factor receptor-1 (IGFR-1) represents a novel molecular target in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). IGFR-1 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation is essential to mediate tumor cell survival, proliferation and invasion. We explored the correlation between IGFR-1 and EGFR, their relationship with clinicopathological parameters and their impact on outcome in resected stage I–III NSCLC patients.
Patients and methods: Tumors from 125 surgical NSCLC patients were evaluated for IGFR-1 and EGFR expression by immunohistochemistry. Kaplan–Meier estimates of survival and time to recurrence were calculated for clinical variables and biologic markers using the Cox model for multivariate analysis.
Results: IGFR-1 protein overexpression was detected in 36.0% of NSCLC patients and was associated with larger tumor size (P = 0.04) but not with other clinical or biological characteristics. EGFR protein overexpression was observed in 55.2% of NSCLC, more frequently in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) than non-SCC (63.7% versus 36.3%, 
2 = 9.8, P = 0.001). IGFR-1 protein expression was associated with EGFR protein expression (P = 0.03). At the multivariate analysis, high coexpression of both IGFR-1 and EGFR was a significant prognostic factor of worse disease-free survival (DFS) (hazard ratio 2.51, P = 0.01).
Conclusion: A statistically significant association was observed between high coexpression of both IGFR-1 and EGFR and worse DFS in early NSCLC patients.
Key words: EGFR, IGFR, NSCLC, prognosis
Received for publication June 24, 2008. Revision received October 18, 2008. Accepted for publication October 24, 2008.