Increased expression of beta-catenin predicts better prognosis in nonsmall cell lung carcinomas

beta-Catenin has been shown to function as a Wnt signaling molecule to stimulate cyclin D1 expression and cell growth in several kinds of tumors.

The authors immunohistochemically examined specimens of 217 surgically resected primary nonsmall cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) for beta-catenin expression and classified them semiquantitatively into three categories, including those with high, moderate, and low scores of expression.

High, moderate, and low scores of expression were found in 37 (17.1%), 145 (66.8%), and 35 (16.1%) tumors, respectively. beta-Catenin expression was not correlated with cyclin D1 expression, but was positively correlated with the Ki-67 cell growth fraction (P = 0.04). The direct sequencing analysis for the beta-catenin gene mutation of 13 specimens of 217 tumors for the current study revealed no mutations. The relation between survival and beta-catenin expression was evaluated in 148 potentially curatively resected tumors with pathologic Stages I-IIIA. A trend toward better survival was found in patients with tumors having higher scores. In multivariate analysis, high beta-catenin expression was a significant and independent favorable prognostic factor (hazards ratio, 0.31; P = 0.007) as was pathologic stage. Analyzed by cell type, in nonsquamous cell carcinomas, patients with tumors having high scores survived a significantly longer time than those with tumors having moderate or low scores (5-year survival rates, 84%, 55%, and 32%, respectively; P = 0.02), and high beta-catenin expression tended to be a favorable prognostic factor (hazards ratio, 0.32; P = 0.052).

These results indicate that, in NSCLCs, increased expression of beta-catenin can predict favorable prognosis of patients with resected tumors, suggesting that accumulation of beta-catenin has no or little oncogenic effect via activation of the Wnt pathway, unlike in colon carcinomas or hepatomas.