ONCOmmunity

Prevalence of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 in Patients with Resected Small Cell Lung Cancer.

By: Gouji Toyokawa, Kazuki Takada, Tetsuzo Tagawa, Fumihiko Kinoshita, Yuka Kozuma, Taichi Matsubara, Naoki Haratake, Shinkichi Takamori, Takaki Akamine, Fumihiko Hirai, Yuichi Yamada, Ryuji Hamamoto, Yoshinao Oda, Yoshihiko Maehara

Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan gouji104kawa@gmail.com.
2018-03-20; doi: 10.21873/anticanres.12649

Abstract

Background/aim

Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a histone methyltransferase that is deeply involved in cancer pathogenesis. Although clinicopathological significance of EZH2 in non-small cell lung cancer has been gradually elucidated, such significance in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has yet to be fully investigated.

Patients

Forty patients with resected SCLC were analyzed for EZH2. EZH2 expression was evaluated using the Allred score (0-8) and was classified into negative (0-6) and positive (7 and 8). We evaluated the association between EZH2 and the clinicopathological characteristics and postoperative survivals.

Results

Among 40 patients, 15 (37.5%) and 25 (62.5%) were classified as being negative and positive for EZH2, respectively. Fisher's exact test demonstrated no significant associations between the positivity for EZH2 and clinicopathological characteristics. No significant differences were observed in recurrence-free and overall survivals between EZH2-negative/low and EZH2-high patients.

Conclusion

EZH2 was frequently observed in patients with resected SCLC, but no significant associations were found between its expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and postoperative survivals.