Abstract: Objective To detect the expression of homeobox genes（HOX）B7 in human lung adenocarcinoma， and investigate its clinical significance.
MethodsThe expressions of HOXB7 mRNA and proteins in human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines A549， H1975， H1650， H322 and human bronchial epithelial cell line HBE were detected by reverse transcription PCR（RT-PCR） and Western blotting method, respectively.Immunohistochemistry staining was used to examine the expressions of HOXB7 in 75 samples of lung adenocarcinoma and their corresponding adjacent normal lung tissues.The correlation between HOXB7 expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma were analyzed.
Results The expression levels of HOXB7 mRNA and proteins in four lung adenocarcinoma cell lines were significantly higher than those in human bronchial epithelial cell line. The overexpression rate of HOXB7 in lung adenocarcinoma and corresponding paracancerous tissue was 76.0％（57/75） and 9.3％（7/75） with statistical difference（P＜0.05）. Statistical analysis revealed that HOXB7 protein expression was correlated with clinical stage， pathological grade and lymph node metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma（P＜0.05）. The median overall survival time of patients with low HOXB7 expression was 68 months， higher than 51 months of patients with overexpression with statistically significant（P＜0.05）. Conclusion The over-expression of HOXB7 relates to the invasion, metastasis and progression of lung adenocarcinoma. It may play an important role in earlier diagnosis and prognosis evaluation for lung adenocarcinoma.