Elevated expression of mcl-1 inhibits apoptosis and predicts poor prognosis in patients with surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Mcl-1, an anti-apoptotic member of bcl-2 family, together with cleaved poly (ADC-ribose) polymerase (c-PARP) can serve as a marker of cell apoptosis. Previously we reported that treatment of Mnk inhibitor CGP57380 resulted in decreased Mcl-1 expression while increased c-PARP expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. In this study, we aimed to investigate association between Mcl-1 expression and clinicopathological features of NSCLC, and their correlation between Mcl-1 and both proliferation index (PI) and apoptotic index (AI) in NSCLC patients. METHODS: Tissue microarrays (TMA) including 350 cases of surgically resected NSCLC were utilize and stained with Mcl-1, Ki-67 and c-PARP antibodies, PI and AI were then evaluated, respectively. RESULTS: Higher Mcl-1 expression and PI were observed in NSCLC compared with non-cancerous lung tissues (non-CLT), while AI was significantly lower in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) compared with non-CLT. Additionally, Mcl-1 expression in lung ADC was evidently higher than that of in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The elevated Mcl-1 expression was associated with PI, and inversely related to AI in NSCLC. NSCLC patients with elevated Mcl-1 expression and high PI, or with high Mcl-1 expression and low AI had remarkably shorter overall survival time than these patients with low Mcl-1 expression. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated expression of Mcl-1 might be inversely proportional to disease progression of NSCLC patients by promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis, and Mcl-1 might serve as novel biomarker of poor prognosis for NSCLC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at (10.1186/s13000-019-0884-3).