Relationship between the expression of heparanase gene in peripheral blood lymphocytes and lymph nodes metastasis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of heparanase gene in peripheral blood lymphocytes and lymph nodes metastasis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Methods The expression of heparanase gene in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 62 patients with non-small cell lung cancer was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR),and 15 healthy subjects served as normal controls.Results The expression of heparanase gene in patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis(P0.01).There was no significant difference in the expression before and after operation(P0.05).The expression of heparanase in normal control group was negative.The expression of heparanase gene in patients with squamous carcinoma was obviously lower than those with adenocarcinoma(P0.05).Conclusion The expression of heparanase gene in peripheral blood lymphocytes may be related with the metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer,which may be used as a prognostic marker for the metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer.