Increased Lipoprotein Lipase Activity in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Tissue Predicts Shorter Patient Survival

Background and Aims tive evidence suggests the involvement of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) in tumor progression. We tested the hypothesis that increased LPL activity in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue and the increased LPL gene expression in the surrounding non-cancer lung tissue found in our previous study are predictors of patient survival. s two consecutive patients with resected NSCLC were enrolled in the study. Paired samples of lung cancer tissue and adjacent non-cancer lung tissue were collected from resected specimens for baseline LPL activity and gene expression estimation. During a 4-year follow-up, 21 patients died due to tumor progression. One patient died due to a non-cancer reason and was not included in Cox regression analysis. s PL activity in cancer tissue (relative to the adjacent non-cancer lung tissue) predicted shorter survival, independently of standard prognostic factors (p = 0.003). High gene expression in the non-cancer lung tissue surrounding the tumor had no predictive value. sions udy further underlines the involvement of cancer tissue LPL activity in tumor progression.