Clinico-pathological characteristics of IGFR1 and VEGF-A co-expression in early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Although targeted therapies and immunotherapy have achieved significant clinical benefits in patients with certain pathological types of lung cancer. However, prognosis for patients with lung adenocarcinoma still remains unsatisfactory. It is of extremely importance to find ideal prognostic indicators to predict the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients, especially for patients with early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the significance of Insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (IGFR1) and Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) expression in predicting progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: In this study, IGFR1 and VEGF-A expression on 119 specimens of patients early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma were analyzed by immunohistochemistry with an H-score system.

RESULTS: Both high IGFR1 expression and VEGF-A expression patients were resulted in 59 (49.6%) separately. The numbers and proportions of IGFR1- &VEGF-A- subgroup, IGFR1- &VEGF-A+ subgroup, IGFR1+ &VEGF-A- subgroup and IGFR1+ &VEGF-A+ subgroup are 23 (19.3%), 37 (31.1%), 37 (31.1%) and 22 (18.5%) respectively. High IGFR1 expression was significantly associated with both poor PFS and OS of all patients in a univariate analysis. Multivariable analysis showed that patients with IGFR1+ &VEGF-A+ expression exhibited a worst PFS and OS in the subgroup of lung adenocarcinoma patients with EGFR mutation.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that IGFR1+ &VEGF-A+ is expected to be a disadvantageous factor for prognosis in the subgroup of EGFR mutation in patients with early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma. What's more, this study may provide the theoretical possibility to screen optimal population for a combination therapy with anti-VEGF and anti-IGFR1 in patients with early and locally advanced-stage lung adenocarcinoma.