[A study on transcript a bnormalities of FHIT gene in human non-small cell lung cancer]

To explore the role of abnormalities in RNA transcript of FHIT gene in human non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC).

Transcript abnormalities of FHIT gene were detected in 35 cancer samples and their corresponding paracancer tissues and normal tissues, four lung cancer cell lines, and 10 lung tissues of benign pulmonary lesions as control by nested RT-PCR.

Fourteen of 35 cancer tissues (40%) had abnormalities in RNA transcripts of FHIT. There were 5 paracancer tissues with transcript abnormalities of FHIT gene out of the 14 lung cancers with transcript abnormalities of FHIT gene, with an abnormality rate of 35.71%. All of 4 lung cancer cell lines had transcript abnormalities of FHIT gene. The aberrant rate of FHIT gene in squamous cell carcinoma tissues (58.82%) was significantly higher than that in adenocarcinoma tissues (22.22%) (P<0.05). No relationship was found among the transcript abnormality of the FHIT gene and differentiated degree of the tumor cell, stages of the cancer, size of the primary tumor, location of cancer, and age of the patients (P>0.05).

The results show that there are transcript abnormalities of FHIT gene in NSCLC. FHIT transcript abnormality preferentially occur in squamous cell carcinomas, and it might be the early molecular phenomenon of lung cancer.