Open Access

Background: The aim of the present study was to measure the serum level of dickkopf-1(DKK-1) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and to determine the prognostic potential of serum DKK-1 in NSCLC. Material and methods: The present study included a total of 150 patients with NSCLC and 150 healthy controls. Serum level of DKK-1 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Numerical variables were recorded as means ± standard deviation (SD) and analyzed by independent t-tests. Categorical variables were presented as rates and analyzed by using the chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. The overall survival was analyzed by log-rank test, and survival curves were plotted according to Kaplan–Meier. Results: We found that serum DKK-1 level was significantly higher in patients with NSCLC than healthy controls. Mean serum DKK-1 level was 31.42 ± 6.32 ng/ml in the NSCLC group and 14.12 ± 3.29 ng/ml in the healthy control group (p <0.01). Serum DKK-1 level expression level was significantly positively correlated with TNM stage (p = 0.009), lymph node involvement(p = 0.001), and distant metastases(p < 0.001). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis, high DKK-1 expression was independently associated with poor survival (P < 0.001; HR = 3.98; 95 % CI =2.19-4.83). Conclusions: In conclusion, our results showed that DKK-1 was overexpressed in NSCLC, and DKK-1 in serum was a good predictor of poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC. More researches are needed in the future to clarify th