Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Proteins of the nucleotide excision repair pathway can repair DNA damage. The excision repair cross-complementing (ERCC) gene family reduce damagement of DNA by nucleotide excision and repair. The aim of this study is to investigate the expressions of ERCC1 (members of DNA repair gene family) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as their clinical prognostic significance. METHODS: Expression levels ofERCC1 were detected by IHC in 118 stage I NSCLC patients. Kaplan-Meier survival curve, and Cox multivariate regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The patients with high expression of ERCC1 had significantly longer survival time than those with low expression of ERCC1, and Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that expression of RRM1 was an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients. CONCLUSION: NSCLC patients with high ERCC1 expression have a better survival when compared to patients with low ERCC1 expression. Therefore, an intact DNA repair mechanism may reduce the accumulation of genetic aberrations that are thought to contribute to a tumor malignant potential and therefore the risk of relapse after definitive treatment.