β-arrestin1 over-expression is associated with an unfavorable prognosis in lung adenocarcinomas and correlated with vascular endothelial growth factor.

The aim of this study was to examine β-arrestin1 expression in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and explore the relationship of β-arrestin1 protein with clinicopathologic factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and prognosis. A total of 105 surgically resected lung adenocarcinoma patients were recruited for the study. The expression of β-arrestin1 and VEGF were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The score measuring the β-arrestin1 and VEGF were calculated by combining the percentage of positive cells and the intensity of staining. Kaplan-Meier method and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between β-arrestin1 and survival. The results demonstrated that a notably higher level of β-arrestin1 expression was found in lung ADC tissues. We also found that an elevated nuclear Β-arrestin1 correlates with higher intratumoral VEGF (P = 0.007). β-arrestin 1 over-expression indicated a poor 5-year overall survival (P = 0.016), and the Cox regression model confirmed that β-arrestin1 over-expression were independent prognostic factor for tumor progression (P = 0.027) and unfavorable overall survival (P = 0.015). We conclude that β-arrestin1 had a high expression in ADC and β-arrestin1 may be a promising biomarker to identify individuals with poor prognosis for patients with ADC.