Impact of Brachyury on epithelial-mesenchymal transitions and chemosensitivity in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of Brachyury on epithelial-mesenchymal transitions and chemosensitivity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In 115 archived NSCLC tissue samples, the expression of Brachyury was observed to be significantly higher than that in adjacent normal lung tissues. In addition, the current study demonstrated that the expression of Brachyury is closely associated with TNM staging, lymph node metastasis and the prognosis of NSCLC, although not with patient age, gender or tumor differentiation. Brachyury expression is also accompanied by the downregulation of E-cadherin and the upregulation of N-cadherin. Brachyury may promote lung cancer through induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which leads to metastasis and consequent poor prognosis in patients with lung cancer. Furthermore, the present study observed that interfering with Brachyury increases the sensitivity of cells to chemotherapeutic treatment with cisplatin. These results, in combination with those of additional studies, suggest that Brachyury may be used as a novel target for the prevention and treatment of lung cancer.