Vasc Cell 2011,3(1):20. doi:10.1186/2045-824X-3-20.PubMedCrossRef 27. Donnem T, Andersen S, Al-Shibli K, Al-Saad S, Busund LT, Bremnes RM: Prognostic impact of Notch ligands and receptors in non-small cell lung cancer: coexpression of Notch-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor-A predicts poor survival. Cancer 2010,

116:5676–5685.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interest. Authors’ contribution SI and AT wrote the manuscript. SN, YU and HO contributed conceptual information and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Introduction Lung cancer is the most common malignancy all over the world and the buy X-396 leading cause of death in men [1], and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for >80% of primary lung cancers [2, 3]. Treatment of these patients is usually based on a multidisciplinary strategy, including a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, results buy Nivolumab of these treatments were unsatisfactory with a 3-year overall survival (OS) being 10% to 20% [4]. The classic prognostic determinants for lung cancer include the tumor-node-metastasis staging system, performance status, sex, and weight loss. Unfortunately, all these

factors are far less than sufficient to explain the patient-to-patient variability. Therefore, identification of new biomarkers for more accurate prognostic and predictive assessment is warranted and could be helpful to highlight the possibility of patient-tailored decisions [5]. The skeleton is the most common site for distant metastasis in patients with cancer [6]. Tumor cells

homing to form bone metastases is common in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), just like what is seen in breast, prostate and thyroid cancers [7, 8]. Some patients may experience bone metastasis many years after surgery of the primary tumor. The high morbidity and significantly increased risk of fractures associated with bone metastasis seriously affect patients’ quality Cediranib (AZD2171) of life. About 36% of all lung cancers and and 54.5% of stage II-IIIA NSCLC showed postoperative recurrence or metastasis [9]. Many lung cancer patients expect new and more sensitive markers to predict metastatic diseases. If bone metastasis can be predicted early enough, then effective prevention could be started and may result in an improvement in survival [10]. The molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the development of bone metastasis in NSCLC remain unclear, so searching for effective biomarkers to predict the possibility of bone metastasis is valuable in clinical practice. OPN is a sibling glycoprotein that was first identified in 1986 in osteoblasts. OPN is a highly negatively charged, extracellular matrix protein that lacks an extensive secondary structure [11]. The OPN gene is composed of 7 exons, 6 of which contain coding sequence [12].