A case study in advanced lung cancer patients with vimentin over expression

Background: Vimentin belongs to an intermediate filament (IF) family of proteins, mainly present in mesenchymal cells and has a crucial role in maintaining cellular integrity. Vimentin can induce epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and thus increase migration and invasion capacity of the cells. It has been shown to be a useful and reliable diagnostic and prognostic marker in several cancers including colon cancers, breast and hepatocellular cancers. Recent studies suggest that it may have a role in distant metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for poor survival [1]. Methods: The aim of the study is to assess the impact of vimentin testing as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in NSCLC. This is a case study of 12 NSCLC patients who had vimentin testing as a part of their work up over the past five years at the University of Cincinnati. A total of 12 patients with advanced lung cancer were included in this case study as they were found to have strong vimentin expression. This was correlated with overall survival of this group of patients. Results: Median survival of the patients was 4.66 months. This is 7.34 months less compared to the median survival of patients with stage IV NSCLC which is reported to be 12 months. Conclusions: More studies are warranted into the use of vimentin as an emerging useful marker for early diagnosis, aggressive transformation relapse, and prognostication of NSCLC. It may have therapeutic value in NSCLC as observed in other cancers.