TNF receptor-associated factor 6 in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: clinical and prognostic implications
Journal of Cancer Research & Clinical Oncology, 07/05/2012
Liu H et al. – Our results provide new insight for the biological properties and clinical relevance of the TRAF6 in NSCLC. TRAF6 is a promising target for therapeutic strategies against cancer.
Methods- A total of 324 patients with stage III and IV NSCLC were retrospectively enrolled.
- Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the expression of TRAF6, apoptosis-related proteins Bcl-2, Bax, Fas, and FasL, as well as the density of CD8+ and FOXP3+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in tumor microenvironment.
- A total of 193 carcinomas (59.6 %) were identified as high expression of TRAF6.
- TRAF6 expression was not significantly related with histology and clinic stage.
- No obvious correlation of TRAF6 expression with apoptosis-related protein and TILs density was identified.
- TRAF6 status was correlated inversely with response to chemotherapy in overall patients (response rates 24.9 and 32.8 %, for patients with high-TRAF6 and low-TRAF6 tumors, respectively, P = 0.039).
- However, multivariate logistic regression analysis could not identify TRAF6 status as an independent predictor for the response to chemotherapy in overall cohort (95 % CI: 0.91–3.32, P = 0.065).
- The overall survival was not significantly associated with TRAF6 expression (P = 0.616).
