SUMO-1 expression modulates non-small cell lung cancer progression

Previous studies indicate that the role of small ubiquitin-related modifier-1 (SUMO1) is responsible for multiple cancer progression including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study aims to explore the expression and significance of SUMO1 in NSCLC. 179 NSCLC patients with resected lung tissue were used for immunofluorescence to detect the expression level of SUMO1 in tumor cells. We also evaluated the association of SUMO1 expression with clinicopathological parameters, including the Ki-67 labeling index (LI). We used Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the effect of SUMO1 expression on survival. We found that SUMO1 expression was significantly elevated in NSCLC tissues when compared with adjacent lung tissues (p<0.01). Moreover, SUMO1 expression was significantly associated with histological type (p<0.01), lymphatic metastasis (P<0.001), and pTNM stage (p<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that overall survival of patients with high expression of SUMO1 was significantly shorter (n = 163, p<0.05). In conclusion, SUMO1 is closely related to the progression in NSCLC and could be served as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC.