The cancer stem cell antigens CD133, BCRP1/ABCG2 and CD117/c-KIT are not associated with prognosis in resected early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

In various tumor entities, expression of cancer stem cell (CSC) antigens has been proven to be prognostically unfavorable. However, for lung cancer, the data are scant and conflicting.,The CSC antigens CD117/c-KIT, CD133 and breast cancer resistance protein-1 (BCRP1/ABCG2) were immunohistochemically analyzed in tissues from a total of 133 completely resected stage I/II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a median follow-up time of 53.8 months. Their expression was related to clinicopathological characteristics, angiogenic features and prognosis.,Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed no association between CSC antigens, disease-free survival or overall survival (OS). However, in the subgroup of patients with relapse and tumors >3 cm, there was a trend towards worse OS upon expression of CD117 (hazard ratio=2.6, 95%, confidence interval=0.8-8.3, p=0.080). Except for CD133, which was overrepresented in T1 tumors (p=0.001), the CSC antigens were not linked to clinico-pathological characteristics or angiogenic features.,In resected early-stage NSCLC, CSC antigens show no association with prognosis. However, in patients with relapse and tumors >3 cm, expression of CD117 might predict worse OS.