Overexpression of RAD51B predicts a preferable prognosis for non-small cell lung cancer patients

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. The majority of patients are diagnosed at an incurable advanced stage with poor prognosis. A recent study associated the methylation of homologous recombination genes with expression of immune checkpoints in lung squamous cell carcinoma. However, the correlation between them remains unclear. In our study, we propose that RAD51B, a repair gene in the homologous recombination process, which is noticed to be a key player in the maintenance of chromosome integrity and in sensing DNA damage, can act as an independent factor affecting the prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Univariate analysis showed that overexpression of RAD51B is statistically significant correlated with better prognosis (P=0.013). Further, the multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the morbidity of patients with high expression of RAD51B was decreased by 26% compared to those with low expression (HR=0.74, 95%CI: 0.59-0.93), especially for the patients with squamous cell carcinoma (HR=0.68, 95%CI: 0.51-0.90). In conclusion, RAD51B in mRNA level can be an important indicator to decide the prognosis of NSCLC and its overexpression predicts a preferable prognosis for NSCLC. Our results serve as a foundation for the investigation of the role of RAD51B in NSCLC, which may lead to potential therapeutic innovations.