New perspectives in different gene expression profiles for early and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer stem cells.

No effective treatments against lung cancer for early or advanced stages have been found. Our aim is to assess whether cancer stem cells (CSC) do show over expression of genes, which were previously identified for adenocarcinoma recurrence, in patients with early and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) stages. This is a cross-sectional study. The mRNA expression of 31 recurrence-related target genes in aldehyde dehydrogenase ALDH-high (CSC) and ALDH-low (epithelial cancer cells) populations have been analyzed in surgical specimens obtained from 22 patients, 12 harboring early (I-II) and 10 harboring locally advanced (IIIA) stages of NSCLC. The mRNA expressions were available in duplicates and ALDH-low cells have been used as reference sample.