Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is Correlated with Patient's Prognosis of Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important step leading to invasion and migration of various cancer cells, and are characterized by decreased E-cadherin as an epithelial marker, and increased vimentin as a mesenchymal marker. The present study focused on the clinicopathological significance of E-cadherin and vimentin expression in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC). Immunohistochemically, E-cadherin expression patterns were classified into two types: preserved or reduced; and vimentin expression patterns were also divided into two types: positive or negative. The univariate analyses showed six factors associated with increased mortality: tumor size (P = 0.031), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001), lymphatic invasion (P < 0.001), histological differentiation (P = 0.036), E-cadherin reduced expression (P < 0.001), and vimentin positive expression (P = 0.004). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that E-cadherin reduced expression (P < 0.001), vimentin positive expression (P = 0.028), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001), and age (P = 0.020) were independent predictors of patient mortality. There may be some correlation between E-cadherin and vimentin expression (P = 0.017), but the correlation coefficient was 0.235. The complete EMT and the incomplete EMT type were associated with a poor prognosis (p < 0.001 and p=0.036, respectively). The overall survival rate after curative resection was significantly lower in patients with the complete EMT type (reduced E-cadherin / positive vimentin). In conclusion, both E-cadherin and vimentin are independent predictors of mortality, and the EMT phenotype is a significant indicator of poor prognosis in lung SqCC.