Abstract: Objective To explore the relationship between expressions of high mobility group B1 and N1(HMGB1 and HMGN1) and clinical pathological parameters and prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Ninety-one postoperative tumor tissue specimens from the patients with NSCLC were collected in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2004 to May 2011. Immune histochemical assay was used to detect the expressions of HMGB1 and HMGN1. According to the staining intensity, expressions of HMGB1 and HMGN1 were divided into positive and negative groups. Kaplan-Meier was used to analyze the correlation between the expressions of HMGB1/HMGN1 and clinical pathological parameters/prognosis. Results The cytoplasmic expressions of HMGB1 (40%,36/91) was positively correlated with cytoplasmic expression of HMGN1 (31%, 28/91, rs=0.319，P<0.001). The expression level of HMGN1 was significantly higher in patients with late stage of NSCLC (Ⅲ~Ⅳ) than that in patients with early stage of NSCLC (Ⅰ~Ⅱ, P＜0.05). It was also found that the expression level of HMGN1 was significantly higher in patients with lymph node metastasis than that in patients without lymph node metastasis (P＜0.05). The poor prognosis of NSCLC was slightly lower in patients with high expression of HMGN1 than that in patients with low expression of HMGN1, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion The HMGN1 can be used as a promising prognostic biomarker for predicting the prognosis of NSCLC patients.

Key words: carcinoma, non-small-cell lung, neoplasm staging, prognosis, high mobility protein B1, high mobility protein N1, biomarker