Overexpression of adenylate cyclase-associated protein 1 may predict brain metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer

This study was designed to establish a biomarker risk model for predicting brain metastasis (BM) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The model comprises 120 cases of NSCLC that were treated and followed up for 4 years. The patients were divided into the BM (n=50) and non-BM (other visceral metastasis and those without recurrence) (n=70) groups. Immunohistochemical and western blot analyses were performed in metastatic tissues of NSCLC. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to correlate the immunoreactive cyclase-associated protein 1 (CAP1) signal with BM. Survival analyses were performed by using the Kaplan-Meier method. CAP1 protein content and immunoreactivity were significantly increased in BM specimens compared to other-metastatic specimens. The survival analysis revealed that CAP1 overexpression was significantly associated with survival (P<0.05). The ROC test suggested that the area under the curve was 73.33% (P<0.001; 95% CI, 63.5-83.2%). When P=0.466, the sensitivity and specificity reached 79.5 and 67.1%, respectively. These findings suggested that CAP1 is involved in the BM of NSCLC, and that elevated levels of CAP1 expression may indicate a poor prognosis for patients with BM. The CAP1 molecular model may be useful in the prediction of the risk of BM in NSCLC.