Low LATS2 expression is associated with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung carcinoma

Abstract

Large tumor suppressor kinase 2 (LATS2) is acore component in theHippo signaling pathway, and it functions as atumor suppressor associated with tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis. Thepurpose ofthis study is to explore LATS2 expression and its clinicopathological significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We examined LATS2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry in 184 resected NSCLC specimens using tissue microarrays. Low LATS2 expression was significantly related to disease recurrence (p=0.047). In survival analysis, thelow LATS2 expression group showed astatistically poorer overall survival (OS) (p=0.004) and disease-free survival (DFS) (p=0.014) than thehigh expression group. In multivariate analysis, downregulated LATS2 expression in NSCLC could be anindependent prognostic factor ofpoor OS and DFS. Furthermore, we evaluated theprognostic significance ofLATS2 expression in two major NSCLC subtypes, squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Thelow LATS2 expression group showed worse prognosis than thehigh LATS2 expression group (OS[p=0.144] and DFS[p=0.022] in squamous cell carcinoma and OS[p=0.045] and DFS[p=0.271] in adenocarcinoma). We demonstrated that downregulated LATS2 expression may predict aggressive biologic behavior and aworse prognosis in NSCLC and we also suggested thepossibility ofLATS2 as atherapeutic target in both squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.