Abstract: Objective  To investigate the prognostic value of serum P-cadherin (P-cad) level in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods  A total of 80 patients with NSCLC in Hanzhong 3201 Hospital of Shaanxi Province from January 2012 to December 2013 were selected as study subjects. The relationships between serum P-cad level and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. The Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors affecting prognosis of NSCLC patients. The survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method and the difference test was carried out by log-rank method. Results  There were significant differences in lymph node metastasis (χ2=14.31, P＜0.001), vascular invasion (χ2=5.56, P=0.018) among NSCLC patients with different levels of serum P-cad. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that lymph node metastasis (HR=0.856, 95%CI: 0.702-0.955,P=0.012), TNM stage (ⅢA HR=1.315, 95%CI: 1.058-1.991, P=0.024; ⅢB HR=1.448, 95%CI: 1.124-2.215, P=0.011; Ⅳ HR=1.569, 95%CI: 1.182-2.441, P＜0.001) and high level of serum P-cad (HR=1.815, 95%CI: 1.224-3.562, P<0.001) were risk factors for progression-free survival in NSCLC patients, and lymph node metastasis (HR=0.755, 95%CI: 0.652-0.915, P=0.022), poor differentiation (HR=1.622, 95%CI: 1.112-2.015, P<0.001), TNM stage (ⅢA HR=1.335, 95%CI: 1.064-2.014, P=0.011; ⅢB HR=1.489, 95%CI: 1.129-2.297, P<0.001; Ⅳ HR=1.622, 95%CI: 1.192-2.501, P<0.001) and high level of serum P-cad (HR=1.677, 95%CI: 1.193-2.668, P<0.001) were risk factors for overall survival of NSCLC patients. The results of Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the overall survival and progression-free survival of patients with high level of serum P-cad were shorter than those of patients with low level of serum P-cad (χ2=5.18, P=0.015; χ2=5.48, P=0.011). Conclusion  High level of serum P-cad is closely related to poor prognosis in NSCLC patients.

Key words: Carcinoma, non-small-cell lung, Cadherins, Lymph nodes