Histol Histopathol, Vol 39, Kuempers et al.

TRIM11 expression in non-small cell lung cancer is associated with poor prognosis

Christiane Kuempers¹, Tobias Jagomast², Finn-Ole Paulsen^1,3, Carsten Heidel^1,4, Sabine Bohnet², Stefanie Schierholz⁵, Markus Reischl⁶, Eva Dreyer¹, Till Olchers^7,9, Martin Reck^7,9, Jutta Kirfel¹ and Sven Perner⁸

¹Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Luebeck, ²Medical Clinic III, Pulmonology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Luebeck, ³Department of Oncology, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation with Division of Pneumology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, ⁴Department of Haematology and Oncology, Sana Hospitals, ⁵Department of Surgery, Medical University of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Luebeck, ⁶Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Karlsruhe, ⁷Department of Thoracic Oncology, LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, Großhansdorf, ⁸Institute for Hematopathology Hamburg, Hamburg and ⁹Airway Research Center North (ARCN), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Großhansdorf, Germany

Corresponding Author: Christiane Kuempers, MD, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160 (Building V50), 23538 Luebeck, Germany. e-mail: christiane.kuempers@uksh.de

Summary. Background. Despite promising results of targeted therapy approaches, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related death. Tripartite motif containing 11 (TRIM11) is part of the TRIM family of proteins, playing crucial roles in tumor progression. TRIM11 serves as an oncogene in various cancer types and has been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the protein expression of TRIM11 in a large NSCLC cohort and to correlate its expression with comprehensive clinico-pathological data.
Methods. Immunohistochemical staining of TRIM11 was performed on a European cohort of NSCLC patients (n=275) including 224 adenocarcinomas and 51 squamous cell carcinomas. Protein expression was categorized according to staining intensity as absent, low, moderate and high. To dichotomize samples, absent and low expression was defined as weak and moderate and high expression was defined as high.
Results were correlated with clinico-pathological data. Results. TRIM11 was significantly more highly expressed in NSCLC than in normal lung tissue and significantly more highly expressed in squamous cell carcinomas than in adenocarcinomas. We found a significantly worse 5-year overall survival for patients who highly expressed TRIM11 in NSCLC.
Conclusions. High TRIM11 expression is linked with a poor prognosis and might serve as a promising novel prognostic biomarker for NSCLC. Its assessment could be implemented in future routine diagnostic workup. Histol Histopathol 39, 437-446 (2024)

Key words: TRIM11, NSCLC, Prognostic, Biomarker, Immunohistochemistry

DOI: 10.14670/HH-18-647