BMI1, ALDH1A1, and CD133 Transcripts Connect Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition to Cancer Stem Cells in Lung Carcinoma

Table 2

Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient analysis of associations between mRNA expression of EMT (BMI1, TWIST1), CSC (CD133, ALDH1A1), and epithelial (EpCAM) markers in primary tumors and matched whole blood samples of 57 operable NSCLC patients. Statistically significant associations () between EMT and CSC marker expression are presented in bold.

	Primary tumor					Whole blood
	CD133	ALDH1A1	BMI1	TWIST1	EpCAM	CD133	ALDH1A1	BMI1	TWIST1	EpCAM
Primary tumor
CD133		= 0.544	= 0.452	= −0.039	= 0.32	= 0.052	= 0.079	= 0.097	= 0.067	= 0.159
		( = 1 × 10^−5)	( = 4 × 10^−4)		( = 0.02)
ALDH1A1			= 0.622	= −0.032	= 0.475	= 0.055	= 0.116	= 0.232	= 0.095	= 0.044
			( = 2 × 10^−7)		( = 2 × 10^−4)
BMI1				= 0.014	= 0.681	= 0.220	= 0.186	= 0.347	= 0.119	= 0.119
					( = 6 × 10^−9)			( = 0.008)
TWIST1					= −0.262	= 0.102	= −0.050	= 0.180	= 0.109	= −0.085
EpCAM						= 0.092	= 0.293	= 0.289	= −0.062	= 0.222
							( = 0.03)	( = 0.03)
Whole blood
CD133							= 0.225	= 0.353	= 0.283	= 0.181
								( = 0.008)	( = 0.04)
ALDH1A1								= 0.407	= −0.034	= 0.283
								( = 0.002)		( = 0.04)
BMI1									= 0.406	= −0.135
									( = 0.002)
TWIST1										= −0.313
										( = 0.02)
EpCAM