Relation between the expression of ERCC1 and the clinicopathology characteristics in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Objective To investigated the association between the expression of DNA repair gene ERCC1 with the clinicopathology characteristics in patients with advanced noninitial chemotherapy treatment non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ). Methods The ERCC1 expression in 64 NSCLC patients was examined with the method of immunohistochemistry, expression differences of ERCC1 and its relationship with the patients clinicopath- ology characteristics were analyzed. Results There were 28 cases expressing ERCC1 (43. 8%). Expression rates of ERCC1 in smokers was 27. 8% and was significantly lower than that in non-smokers (64.3%). The expression of ERCC1 in lung adenocarcinomas were lightly higher than squa- mous cell carcinomas,but the differenc was not significant. There were no significant differences between the expression of ERCC1 and the different TNM stages,gender,ages and pathological classification. Conclusion In non-small cell lung cancer,expression of ERCC1 was significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers.