Prognostic significance of the maspin tumor suppressor gene in pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Purpose: Maspin is a member of the serpin family and has tumor suppressor activity. We evaluated maspin expression in pulmonary adenocarcinoma in relation to a number of clinicopathological features.
Methods: Maspin expression was examined immunohistochemically in a series of 78 pulmonary adenocarcinomas by the EnVision ChemMate method.
Results: . Thirty-seven of 78 cases (47%) showed distinct maspin expression (maspin-positive group) and 41 (53%) did not (maspin-negative group). Maspin expression was not associated significantly with most clinicopathological variables including sex, age, tumor size, primary tumor, lymph node metastasis, visceral pleural invasion, pulmonary metastasis, and disease stage. However, the maspin-positive group had a better 5-year survival rate (62%) than did the maspin-negative group (42%). The difference in the 5-year survival rate was greatest in stage II patients (maspin-positive group, 69%; maspin-negative group, 17%; P = 0.048).
Conclusion: Our data indicate that maspin has prognostic significance for pulmonary adenocarcinoma. A better understanding of the role of maspin in tumor suppression may be helpful for development of novel chemotherapies for patients with this deadly tumor.