Metastasis is the most common cause of death in
lung cancer patients and is a major obstacle to the successful treatment. To discover novel
metastasis-related
proteins in lung adenorcinoma (AdC), quantitative proteomic analysis was performed between primary lung AdC tissues with (LNM AdC) and without
lymph node metastasis (non-LNM AdC). In this study,
annexin A1 was identified to be significantly up-regulated in LNM AdC compared with non-LNM AdC. Immunohistochemistry showed that
annexin A1 over-expression was frequently observed in LNM AdCs and matched
lymph node metastases compared with non-LNM AdCs.
Annexin A1 over-expression was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage (P < 0.05) and
lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) and increased relapse rate (P < 0.05) and decreased overall survival (P < 0.05) in lung AdCs. Cox regression analysis indicated
annexin A1 over-expression was an independent prognostic factor. Furthermore, suppression of
annexin A1 expression by
siRNA interference significantly inhibited the invasion ability of
lung adenocarcinoma cell A549 in vitro. In conclusion,
annexin A1 expression correlated with
tumor stage,
lymph node metastasis, relapse, and patient survival.
Annexin A1 is proposed to function importantly in the progression of lung AdC.