Poor Prognostic Factors in Surgically Resected Stage I Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Histopathologic and Immunohistochemical Analysis

BACKGROUND: A better understanding of the histopathology and molecular biology of lung cancer might improve our capability to predict the outcome for any individual patient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate several histopathologic and molecular markers in order to assess their prognostic value in stage I non-small cell lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred ten patients at the Kyungpook National University Hospital were enrolled in the study. Histopathologic factors and molecular markers were selected. RESULTS: Univariate analysis showed that the T stage, differentiation, visceral pleural invasion, and survivin expression were significantly associated with recurrence. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that differentiation and survivin overexpression emerged as independent prognostic factors of recurrence. CONCLUSION: In resected stage I non-small cell lung cancer, poor differentiation and survivin overexpression have been identified as independent predictors of poor disease-free survival.