Clinicopathological significance of BGP expression in non-small-cell lung carcinoma: relationship with histological type, microvessel density and patients’ survival

Summary Aims Brain-type glycogen phosphorylase (BGP) is the major isoform of glycogen phosphorylase found in fetal and neoplastic tissues, and is generally thought to induce glucose supply during an ischaemic period. This study was performed to investigate BGP expression in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Methods A total of 119 cases of NSCLC, including 63 squamous cell carcinomas (SqCCs) and 56 adenocarcinomas (ACs), were imunohistochemically evaluated for BGP expression, and its expression was correlated with clinico-pathological parameters. Results In total, 76.5% were positive, while non-neoplastic bronchial epithelial cells were weakly positive and pneumocytes were negative. High BGP expression was noted in 78.6% of ACs and 36.5% of SqCCs ( p = 0.001). Microvessel density was higher in the low BGP expression tumours (29.6 ± 16.9/mm 2 ) than in the high expression tumours (22.8 ± 13.8/mm 2 ) ( p = 0.017). BGP expression did not correlate with patient age or tumour stage, but was more frequent in females than males. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that high BGP expression was associated with poorer survival ( p = 0.032). Conclusions BGP is expressed in NSCLC, particularly AC, and is an independent poor prognostic factor.