Abstract: Association of TNFRSF10A Genetic Polymorphism with Clinicopathologic Parameters andPrognosis in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer ( NSCLC )Huijuan Huang, Xuenong OUYANG, Zhongquan ZHAO, Zongyang YUCorrespondence to: Xuenong OUYANG, E-mail: oyxn@public.fz.fj.cnDepartment of Oncology, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command, Fuzhou 350025, ChinaAbsract Objective: To investigate the clinicopathologic correlation between polymorphisms in the Tumor necrosis factor-Re-lated Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand ( TRAIL ) - Death Receptor 4 ( DR4 ) ( TRAIL-DR4 ) ( named tumor necrosis factor receptor super-family, member 10a TNFRSF10A in National Center for Biotechnology Information NCBI ) gene ( -972C/T, -397G/T ) andnon-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC ), and to study its potential significance in the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Methods: TN-FRSF10A gene ( -972C/T, -397G/T ) genotypes were determined in samples from 92 NSCLC patients using polymerase chain reactionrestriction fragment length polymorphisms assay ( PCR-RFLP ). Data were also collected regarding initial treatment, surgical methods,and 3-year follow-up. Unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze the statistical association between genotypes andclinicopathologic characteristics, adjusting for gender, age and smoking history. The 3-year survival curves of these patients were ana-lyzed by Kaplan-Meier method ( log-rank test ). Cox regression model was used to analyze the factors influencing prognosis ofNSCLC, and stratified analysis was conducted for the possible correlating factors. Results: The -972C/T alleles were related to patho-logical differentiation of NSCLC cells. The analyses stratified by pathological grading indicated that the degree of pathological differen-tiation with the CT genotype was much worse than the CC or TT genotypes ( P = 0.012, 0R = 7.599, 95% CI = 1.564 -36.917 ). Howev-er, there were no significant correlations between the -972C/T alleles and other clinicopathologic parameters including pathologicaltype, clinical stage, tumor size, lymph node involvement, 3-year survival rate or prognosis. Moreover, analysis by Cox regressionshowed that different pathologic types, pathological differentiation and clinical stages influenced the prognosis of NSCLC. Therefore itcould be inferred that there might be a correlation between -972C/T alleles and the prognosis of NSCLC patients. There was no correla-tion among the -397C/T alleles, the clinicopathologic parameters mentioned in this research, the 3-year survival rate or the prognosis.Conclusion: The -972C/T genetic polymorphism relates to the pathological differentiation of NSCLC cells. The heterozygous NSCLCpatients with -972C/T genotypes may have an unfavorable clinical outcome. This study demonstrates that the -972C/T polymorphism in the TNFRSF10A gene may be able to guide clinical practice because of its correlation with clinicopathologic parameters. It may alsohave significant value in evaluating the prognosis for patients with NSCLC.Keywords Lung cancer; TRAIL; DR4; TNFRSF10A; Polymorphism