Abstract: Objective: To investigate the relationship between the protein expression of chemokine CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 in tissues of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC ) and the clinical pathological features. Methods: Expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in NSCLC tissue(n =95) and benign tumor tissue(n=27) were detected by immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between CXCL12/CXCR4 protein expression and clinical pathologic features was also analyzed. Results: The high expression rates of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in NSCLC tissues with lymph node metastasis(67.2%、51.7%)were both significantly higher than those in NSCLC tissues without lymph node metastasis (35.1%、27.0%).Expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 were closely associated with TNM stage(P<0.05),and the high expression rates in stage III were much higher than those in stage I. The high expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in control group(non-tumor tissues ) is much lower than that in NSCLC. There was no significant relationship between CXCL12 and CXCR4 expressions. We found no relationship between the positive rates of CXCL12 and CXCR4 and the age, gender, tumor size, histological type and degree of differentiation. Conclusion: Expression of CXCL12 and CXCR4 were associated with metastasis and TNM stage, and can be used to evaluate potential prognosis of the patients with lung cancer.

Key words: carcinoma, non-small-cell lung, neoplasm metastasis, CXCL12, CXCR4, immunohistochemistry