Gene expression analysis of SOCS, STAT and PIAS genes in lung cancer patients

One of the most devastating diseases with the highest prevalence and mortality rate worldwide is lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the subtype of lung cancer in 85% of cases. In this work, the expression levels of the STAT, SOCS and PIAS family genes involved in angiogenesis, proliferation and differentiation were examined. Using QRT-PCR technique, the expression level of STAT3 gene was assessed and tumor tissue samples had higher expression than normal tissue. In addition, the histological grade of adenocarcinoma was associated with the increase in STAT3 gene expression. The expression of the SOCS1 and SOCS2 genes in tumors was measured to be 0.58-fold and 0.36-fold lower than in healthy samples adjacent to the tumor, but this reduction in expression was not significant. In addition, when examining the relationship between the expression of SOCS1 and 2 and the clinical features of tumor samples, there was a significant decrease in the expression of the SOCS1 and 2 genes in the adenocarcinoma subtype. Compared to neighboring tumor samples, the expression of PIAS1 in the tumors was not different with controls. Our research revealed that tissue samples from adenocarcinoma had higher levels of STAT3 expression. Taken together, the mentioned genes can be suggested as possible targets for further studies in NSCLC.