ERCC1 in NSCLC – comparative immunhistochemical and rt-PCR analysis

Adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy improves survival among patients with completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer, but there is no validated clinical or biological predictor of the benefit of chemotherapy. Under this aspect we used immunohistochemical analysis and rt-PCR analysis to determine the expression of the excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1) protein in operative specimens of 84 non-small-cell lung cancer. Immunohistochemical staining intensity was graded on a scale of 0 to 3 with a higher number indicating a higher intensity of ERCC1. The percentage of positive tumor nuclei was…