Customer Publication
LRIG1 in lung cancer: prognostic effects and mechanistic studies
Institution: Umeå university
Publishing Date: 1 Jan 2020
Research Areas: Cancer Research
Summary: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide as well as in Sweden and Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the predominant form. High levels of the leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like (LRIG1) have been associated with better survival in a multitude of malignant diseases, including (but not limited to) breast cancer, bladder cancer, cervical cancer, glioma and melanoma. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether LRIG1 was a prognostic factor in NSCLC as well and to further characterize the biological role of LRIG proteins in this disease.The author found that LRIG1 was an independent positive prognostic factor in early-stage NSCLC. We identified LMO7 and LIMCH1 as interaction partners for LRIG proteins and showed that the interaction between LMO7 and LRIG1 had implications for the clinical outcome in NSCLC. Furthermore, our mechanistic studies on the effects of LRIG1 overexpression on NSCLC cells suggested that the survival benefit conferred by high LRIG1 expression may be due to differences in metastatic potential. Taken together, the findings in this thesis suggest an important biological role for LRIG proteins in NSCLC.