[Clinicopathological Research and Expression of PTEN/PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.]

It has been known that abnormality of PTEN/PI3K/Akt signal pathway played an important role in initiation of some malignant tumors. The aim of this study is to examine the expression and clinicopathological significance of PTEN, PI3K and Akt in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Expression levels of PTEN, PI3K and Akt protein were determined using immunohistochemistry S-P in 61 specimens of NSCLC with follow-up.

(1)The levels of PTEN protein was higher than that of control group, and levels of PI3K and Akt protein were lower than that of control group; (2)Expression of PTEN and PI3K were related to histotype, clinical stage, lymphonode metastasis and survival rate; Expression of Akt was related to clinical stage, lymphonode metastasis and survival rate; (3)The Cox Monovariable Analyses revealed that both smoking and negative expression of PTEN were the risking factors on the death of the NSCLC patients after surgery; (4)The expression of PTEN protein was negatively correlated to that of PI3K and Akt respectively, while the expression of PI3K was positively correlated to that of Akt.

In NSCLC, the lack of PTEN induced up-regulation of PI3K and Akt, which demonstrated that PTEN/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway contributed to the tumorigenesis and development of NSCLC. They could be used as the indicators of prognosis and targets of therapy.