RNA sequencing of 53 early stage lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common histological subtype of lung cancer. Although early-stage LUAD (esLUAD) patients have much better prognosis than patients with advanced disease, among early stage patients treated primarily with surgery, some of early stage patients will develop metastasis with overall 5 year survival for stage 1 and 2 non-small cell lung cancer of 70% and 35%, respectively. Within lung adenocarcinoma, histology is heterogenous and associated with tumor invasion and clinical outcomes. Invasiveness is one of cancer hallmarks and is directly related with metastatic potential and clinical outcomes of the tumor. In this study, we characterize invasiveness mechanisms in esLUAD by analyzing gene expression of a novel cohort of 53 histologically heterogenous esLUAD samples. Tumor specimens were acquired from 53 patients of resected lung adenocarcinoma in situ and minimally invasive adenocarcinoma. Tumors tissue were collected from 2000~2010 and retrieved via an IRB approved protocol. All cases of AIS, MIA and LPA for which frozen tissue was collected were obtained. In addition, small invasive adenocarcinomas (prioritized as <2.0 cm, but all<3.0 cm) with node metastasis were identified (10 cases) and matched to 10 cases of the same T stage size grouping and with the same predominant invasive pattern but lacking node metastasis.