Objective: To study the expression and clinical significance of TWIST family bHLH transcription factor 1 (TWIST1) and Fascin actin-bundling protein 1(FSCN1) mRNA in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: The TCGA visualization website GEPIA was used to explore the mRNA expression of TWIST1 and FSCN1 in NSCLC and the correlation between their expression and TNM stages and prognosis of patients; real-time quantitative PCR was preformed to detect the mRNA expression of TWIST1 and FSCN1 in 69 pairs of paired tumor tissues, and the correlation between their expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed based on the clinical information of patients. Results: The mRNA expression of TWIST1 and FSCN1 in lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma was higher than that in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). NSCLC tissues showed higher expression levels of TWIST1 mRNA and FSCN1 mRNA compared with adjacent normal tissues(P<0.05). Both mRNA expression of TWIST1 and FSCN1 were correlated with the pathological stages and lymph node metastasis(P<0.05). Moreover, linear regression analysis showed a significant positive correlation between them (r=0.630, P<0.001). Conclusion: TWIST1 mRNA and FSCN1 mRNA were highly expressed in NSCLC and correlated with the clinical staging and prognosis of patients.
[Key words]TWIST family bHLH transcription factor 1; Fascin actin-bundling protein 1; non-small cell lung cancer