| Summary: | 碩士 === 中山醫學大學 === 醫學研究所 === 94 === Malignant tumors have been the leading cause of death in Taiwan since 1982 and lung cancer is responsible for 15-20% of cancer deaths. Such high mortality rate of lung cancer is mainly resulted from the difficulty of early diagnosis. Most patients, when identified, have metastasis and, therefore, the treatment efficiency is relatively low, usually 5-15% of the patients with a 5-year survival. This indicates an urgent need to establish a biomarker for monitoring tumor metastasis in order to improve treatment efficiency and extend the survival of lung cancer patients.
The structural changes of cell junction have been identified to be an important indicator of cancer cell, especially for those with high transfer potention. In recent studies, the expression extents of E-cadherin of cell juction in lung tumor tissues and Cx43 expression amount could be used as a prognosis indicator. E-cadherin was known to be functional only after being binding with α-catenin, β-catenin to form a complex integrated in the cell membrane. In additon, together with E-cadherin, p120ctm can promote the funtion of the complex and its ability of indication is related to the cell proliferationr rate.
The paraffin section from 16 lung tumors and each of five adjacent normal tissues at various distances from tumor tissues were analyzed with the method of IHC. The results show that the protein expressions of E-cadherin and its complex, α-catenin and β-catenin, gradually decreased when their distance to tumor tissues decreased. That is, there was a positive correlation between their protein expressions and the distance to the tumor tissues. Therefore, the decrease of expression of E-cadherin, α-catenin and β-catenin could be used as a biomarker for monitoring tumorgenesis.
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