bcl-2 and p53 protein expression in non-small cell lung cancers: Correlation with survival time

Apoptosis-related genes have received increasing attention in carcinogenesis, drug sensitivity, radiation sensitivity, and patient survival, bcl-2 and mutated p53 genes have been reported to inhibit apoptosis, To determine bcl-2 and p53 protein expression and their impacts on survival time in lung cancers, we studied 99 surgically resected, paraffin-embedded non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) specimens by immunohistochemical staining, The bcl-2 protein was expressed in 19.2% of NSCLCs, bcl-2-positive cases were found in 30.4% of stages I and ii carcinomas in 36.8% of squamous cell carcinomas, Patients with bcl-2 expression survived longer than those without, p53 protein was found in 44.4%; there was no significant difference in survival time between patients with and without p53 expression, Patients who were both bcl-2 positive acid p53 negative survived significantly longer than those who were bcl-2 negative or p53 positive, These results suggest that bcl-2 protein expression can be histologically specific and stage dependent, and that the bcl-2 protein expression is potentially valuable for prognosis in NSCLC, particularly in the early stages, when bcl-2 protein expression is considered with mutant p53 protein expression.