Expression of Ezrin correlates with lung metastasis in Chinese patients with osteosarcoma.

PURPOSE To determine the prognostic value of the expression of Ezrin, CD44 and Six1 genes in osteosarcoma tissues of Chinese patients. METHODS Fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR was applied to study the mRNA levels of Ezrin, CD44 and Six1 genes in 32 osteosarcoma patient samples and 10 adjacent normal tissues and MG63 osteosarcoma cell lines. The analysis of relationships between pulmonary metastasis and overall survival time were carried out based on the clinical data. RESULTS mRNA levels of Ezrin and Six1 genes in osteosarcoma tissues were higher than those in adjacent normal tissues (P=0.015, 0.025). The mRNA levels of Ezrin, CD44 and Six1 genes were closely correlated with Enneking GTM clinical staging, while no correlations were demonstrated between the mRNA level of these genes with sex, age, location or pathological types. In addition, we demonstrated that the high mRNA level of Ezrin gene was related to shorter lung metastasis-free and overall survival time of the Chinese patients with osteosarcoma (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Our data suggest that Ezrin, but not CD44 and Six1, could be a prognostic factor and a predictor of potential lung metastasis in osteosarcoma. Further large sample studies need to be done to confirm the potential value of Ezrin as a new therapeutic target.