The association of the immunohistochemical expressions of
cyclin D1, p16 and the retinoblastoma gene product (pRB) with the prognoses of 106 patients with
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at stages I and II after a complete resection was investigated. We used
antibodies recognizing nuclear and cytoplasmic
cyclin D1, p16 and pRB. In 106
tumors, the positive rates of
cyclin D1, p16 and pRB were 46, 54 and 48%, respectively.
Cyclin D1-positive (
cyclin D1(+)) patients had significantly poorer survival prognoses than
cyclin D1-negative (cyclin D1(-)) patients (log-rank test, P=0.0002; Wilcoxon test, P=0.0005), whereas p16-positive (p16(+)) patients had significantly better prognoses than p16-negative (p16(-)) patients (log-rank test, P=0.0063; Wilcoxon test, P=0.0044). The survival period was over 65% for patients with
cyclin D1(-)/p16(+) (n=34) at 120 months after surgery, whereas patients with
cyclin D1(+)/p16(-) patients (n=22) had a 50% survival period at 49 months. The cumulative survival rate of
cyclin D1(+)/p16(-) patients was significantly lower than that of
cyclin D1(-)/p16(+) patients (log-rank test, P=0.0004; Wilcoxon test, P=0.0002). The pRB did not influence significantly the survival rate. Our results indicate that
cyclin D1 and p16, especially a combination of
cyclin D1 and p16, are very useful to predict the prognosis of patient with NSCLC after curative resection independent of pathological stages I and II.