Prognostic significance of annexin II expression in non-small cell lung cancer

To discover common metastasis-related and prognostic markers in lung squamous carcinoma (LSC) and lung adenocarcinoma (AdC), two forms of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Quantitative proteomic analysis was performed between primary cancer tissues and matched lymph node metastatic tissues in LSC and AdC, respectively. Immunohistochemistry and statistic analysis were performed to investigate prognostic significance of metastasis-related protein annexin II expression in LSC and AdC. Both in LSC and AdC, elevated expression of annexin II was identified in lymph node metastatic lung cancers compared to corresponding primary lung cancers. Furthermore, immunohistochemical analysis of a bulk of clinical specimens indicated that annexin II over-expression was more frequently observed in matched lymph node metastatic tissues than corresponding primary cancer tissues. Statistical analysis showed that annexin II over-expression was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage (P < 0.05) and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) and increased relapse rate (P < 0.05) and decreased overall survival (P < 0.05) in both two subtypes of NSCLC. Cox regression analysis indicated that annexin II over-expression was an important prognostic factor in both LSC and AdC. Annexin II was identified as a common prognostic factor in both LSC and AdC.