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Nuclear survivin expression: a prognostic factor for the response to taxane–platinum chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

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Abstract

Survivin, a structurally unique protein expressed in most common human neoplasms, is thought to support cell cycle progression and suppress apoptosis. Survivin expression is highly correlated with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and poor prognosis. In this retrospective study of banked pathology tissue of patients with advanced NSCLC, we tested for correlations of N-survivin expression in tumor tissues and responsiveness to treatment with platinum-based regimens containing paclitaxel or docetaxel. The 48 patients with NSCLC included 32 (66.7 %) males and 16 (33.3 %) females. Mean age at diagnosis was 59.4 years (range 36–83 years), and median follow-up time was 20.4 months (range 3.4–59.0 months). Patients with high tumor N-survivin expression had significantly better responses to taxane–platinum chemotherapy than those with low tumor N-survivin expression (P < 0.001). Adjusted multivariate modeling found high tumor N-survivin expression to be an independent prognostic factor for a clinical response to chemotherapy (high vs. low, OR 6.14, 95 % CI 1.62–23.29; P = 0.008). Median overall survival differed significantly between those with high tumor N-survivin expression who did/did not respond to chemotherapy and between those with low tumor N-survivin expression who did/did not respond to chemotherapy (P < 0.05). Tumor N-survivin expression shows promise as a predictive biomarker in the chemotherapy setting as a surrogate marker of high proliferation status.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Chuen Hsueh (Pathology Core Laboratory, Molecular Medicine Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taiwan) and Yue Chung Tai (Department of Pathology, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation.) for help with the immunohistochemical preparation and evaluation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yao-Kuang Wu, Chun-Yao Huang, Mei-Chen Yang, Chou-Chin Lan & Chih-Hsin Lee

  2. School of Medicine, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan

    Yao-Kuang Wu, Mei-Chen Yang, Chou-Chin Lan & Chih-Hsin Lee

  3. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, Chang Gung University, 259 Wen-Hua 1st Road, Kweishan, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan

    Err-Cheng Chan & Kuei-Tien Chen

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  1. Yao-Kuang Wu
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Correspondence to Kuei-Tien Chen.

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Wu, YK., Huang, CY., Yang, MC. et al. Nuclear survivin expression: a prognostic factor for the response to taxane–platinum chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Med Oncol 31, 79 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0079-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0079-4

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