1996 Volume 10 Issue 5 Pages 558-562
Between 1982 and 1992, 315 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLS) underwent surgery in our service. Of them 102 were of pathological stage I proved by a complete preoperative work-up which included mediastino-hilar lymph-node dissection.
We studied T factors, histological type, lymphatic and venous infiltration, and expression of E-cadherin (ECD) in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded surgical specimens from all 102 patients. The overall 5-year-survival rate was 73.1%. In T1 disease it was 87.0% and in T2 54.9% (p<.05), and in Ly (-) disease it was 90.0% and in ly (+) it was 61.1% (p<.05). ECD expression in the 77 patients evaluated was preserved in all. 32 surviving patients (100 %), and reduced in the 45 patients whose five year survival ratio was 62.1% (p=.0028).
Of the patients with T2 disease 20 had reduced ECD and 50.1%, but all 32 patients with T1/ 2 disease preserved ECD survived 100%.
Thus ECD expression seems to be one of the best prognostic factors for stage I NSCLC.