Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: It has been proven that the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations and content change were associated with increasing risk of tumorigenesis. MtDNA content is significantly reduced in most substantive tumors. The aim of this study is to demonstrate whether mtDNA content is positively associated with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) risk. METHODS: MtDNA content in 37 matched lung carcinoma and histologically adjacent normal lung tissue samples from patients were analyzed by fluorogenic 5-nuclease real-time PCR techniques. RESULTS: The mean copy number of mtDNA in lung carcinoma tissue samples was statistically lower than that in adjacent histologically normal lung tissue samples (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The change of mtDNA content may play an important role in NSCLC.