Objective  To study the effects of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and polytumor activator factor (PEA3) levels in tissue of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) on prognosis of patients.

  Methods  Lung cancer tissues and adjacent tissues more than 5 cm away from cancer tissues of 75 patients with NSCLC were collected. The expression levels of AP-1 and PEA3 in NSCLC lung cancer and adjacent tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry (SP), the relationships between their expressions and clinicopathological parameters of NSCLC patients were analyzed, Kaplan-Meier was used to analyze the relationships between AP-1, PEA3 expression and the prognosis of NSCLC patients, COX was used to analyze the risk factors affecting the poor prognosis of NSCLC patients.

  Results  The positive rates of AP-1 and PEA3 proteins in lung cancer tissues were significantly higher than those of adjacent tissues(P < 0.05). The positive expressions of AP-1 and PEA3 proteins in lung cancer tissues were related to smoking history, differentiation degree, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and pleural metastasis of NSCLC patients (P < 0.05). The 5-year overall survival rate of patients with positive expressions of AP-1 and PEA3 proteins in lung cancer tissues was significantly lower than those with negative expressions (P < 0.05). The high TNM stage, pleural metastasis, positive expressions of AP-1 and PEA3 proteins in lung cancer tissues were risk factors affecting the poor prognosis of NSCLC patients (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  The positive expression of AP-1 and PEA3 protein in lung cancer tissues affects the prognosis of NSCLC patients, and may have some clinical significance for the prognosis evaluation of NSCLC.