Correlation of CT indicators of NSCLC and pathological features and the expression level of p53 and c-myc

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlations of the computed tomography (CT) signs of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with pathological features and the expression levels of phosphoprotein 53 (p53) and c-Myc in patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 87 patients with NSCLC admitted to the Department of Oncology in our hospital from July 2014 to March 2017 were randomly selected. Morphologies of NSCLC and cancer-adjacent tissues were detected by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining; messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein levels of p53 and c-Myc in cancer and cancer-adjacent tissues were detected using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC); spiral CT (SCT) was conducted for exploring imaging signs of patients with NSCLC; the correlation of CT signs with pathology and the expressions of p53 and c-Myc was analyzed. RESULTS: H&E staining showed that NSCLC tissues had a larger nucleus, a larger nucleus-cytoplasm ratio, and a more evident histopathological atypia, with no clear histological structure compared with cancer-adjacent normal tissues; RTPCR and IHC results revealed that the mRNA and protein expression levels of p53 and c-Myc in NSCLC tissues were significantly higher than those in cancer-adjacent tissues, in which differences in mRNA levels were 1.75 folds and 1.84 folds, respectively (p<0.05). SCT signs indicated that swollen lymph nodes and spiculation, spinous process and deep lobulation signs often occurred in the chest of NSCLC patients, and pleural indentation appeared in the majority of patients; the chi-square test results showed that the positive rates of p53 and c-Myc proteins were not related to pathological types of NSCLC, but significantly correlated with tumor differentiation (p<0.05); the positive rates of p53 and c-Myc proteins were correlated with tumor diameter, spiculation and deep lobulation signs and lymph node metastasis (p<0.05), but not associated with spinous process, vacuole and pleural indentation signs (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: CT scan combined with the detection of p53 and c-Myc expressions can improve the diagnosis of lymph node metastasis and clinical staging for patients with NSCLC, which is conducive to the clinical treatment and prognosis analysis of NSCLC.