High expression of NDRG3 associates with unfavorable overall survival in non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: N-myc downstream-regulated gene 3 (NDRG3) is one of the important members of the NDRG family which crucially take part in cell proliferation, differentiation and other biological processes. METHODS: In this present study, western-blotting analysis was performed to evaluate NDRG3 expression in NSCLC cell lines. One-step quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with 16 fresh-frozen NSCLC samples and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis in 100 NSCLC cases were conducted to explore the relationship between NDRG3 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of NSCLC. RESULTS: NDRG3 expression levels were statistically higher in NSCLC cell lines and tissue samples, compared with that of in non-cancerous cell line and tissue samples (p< 0.05). The IHC data demonstrated that the NDRG3 expression was significantly correlated with pathological grade (p= 0.038), N (p= 0.020) and TNM stage (p= 0.002). Survival analysis and Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that NDRG3 expression (p= 0.002) and T (p= 0.047) were independently associated with the unfavorable overall survival of patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: The data implied that NDRG3 expression may be identified as a new predictor in NSCLC prognosis.