Clinical significance of various drug-sensitivity markers in patients with surgically resected pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma

Various drug-sensitivity markers are potentially responsible for tumor progression and chemotherapy resistance in cancer patients with both epithelial and sarcomatous components; however, the clinicopathological significance of drug-sensitivity markers in patients with pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma (PPC) remains unknown. Here, we clarified the prognostic impact of these drug-sensitivity markers in PPC by performing immunohistochemical and clinicopathologic analyses of samples from 105 patients with surgically resected PPC in order to evaluate levels of vascular endothelial growth factor 2 (VEGFR2), stathmin 1 (STMN1), tubulin β3 class III (TUBB3), thymidylate synthetase (TS), topoisomerase II (Topo-II), glucose-regulated protein, and 78 kDa (GRP78)/binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP). We observed the rates of high expression for VEGFR2, STMN1, TUBB3, TS, Topo-II, and GRP78/BiP were 33% (39/105), 35% (37/105), 61% (64/105), 51% (53/105), 31% (33/105), and 51% (53/105) of the samples, respectively. Moreover, multivariate analysis identified VEGFR2 and GRP78/BiP as significant independent markers for predicting worse prognosis. These findings suggested elevated VEGFR2 and decreased GRP78/BiP levels as independent factors for predicting poor outcomes following surgical resection in patients with PPC.