Abstract:Objective To investigate the expression of endoplasmic reticulum associated degradation protein Derlin-1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and explore its associations with clinical features and prognosis in NSCLC patients. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 40 patients with histologically confirmed NSCLC from January 2010 to December 2011 in Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University.According to TNM classifications,the patients were divided into Ⅰ-Ⅱ stage group (n=22) and Ⅲ-Ⅳ stage group (n=18).The normal tissues adjacent to cancer of 18 subjects in all patients were used as control group.Real-time PCR,Western blot and immunohistochemistry were respectively used to detect the expressions of Derlin-1 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues.The associations of Derlin-1 expression with clinical characteristics and prognosis of NSCLC and the relationship between positive expression of Derlin-1 and overall 3-year survival rate were analyzed. Results The relative expressions of Dertlin-1 mRNA and protein decreased significantly in the order of Ⅲ-Ⅳ group,Ⅰ-Ⅱ group and control group,overall and pairwis comparison were statistic significant (P<0.01,P<0.05).The positive rates of Derlin-1 in Ⅲ-Ⅳ group，Ⅰ-Ⅱ group and control group were 94.44%,63.64% and 16.67%,respectively,and there were statistical differences in them among three groups（P＜0.01）.The positive rate of Derlin-1 was statistically correlated with TNM stage,pathological grading and lymph node metastasis(P<0.05,P<0.01);the 3-year overall survival rate in patients with positive expression of Derlin-1 was significantly lower than that in patients with negative expression of Derlin-1 (77.78% vs 22.58%,P＜0.01). Conclusion Derlin-1 is overexpressed in NSCLC and results in high malignancy and poor prognosis.Derlin-1 might be served as a potential target for the treatment of NSCLC.