Biomarkers in Tissue and Blood Samples From Patients With Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

OBJECTIVES:

• Evaluate aberrant methylation patterns in tissue and serum samples from patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to validate the Johns Hopkins single institutional study.
• Attempt to define subgroups of patients at greater risk for recurrent or metastatic disease who may benefit from more aggressive adjuvant therapeutic regimens.
• Develop prognostic indicators for disease-specific and overall survival.
• Define new potential molecular targets for therapy.

OUTLINE: Archived tumor and intrathoracic lymph node tissue samples are analyzed for aberrant DNA methylation (p16/CDKN2A, DAP kinase, H-cadherin, APC, and RASSF1A) by methylation-specific PCR. Analyses are then compared with the preliminary data from the Johns Hopkins institutional study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer

• T1 or T2, N0 disease
• Had a lobectomy or greater resection with negative surgical margins (R0 resection)
• Available tumor and lymph node specimens from patients enrolled on ACOSOG-Z0040 and ACOSOG-Z0030 trials

• Node-negative with recurrent disease within 3 years (cases)
• Node-negative patients without recurrent disease (controls)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics