Abstract
BackgroundBeclin 1 is a main actor of autophagy. The expression of Beclin 1 and its prognostic role in gastric cancer is largely unexplored. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the expression of beclin 1 in gastric cancer cells, tissues and its relationship with prognosis.MethodsThe expression of Beclin 1 was detected in 271 specimens of lymph-node positive gastric cancer patients by immunohistochemistry. The correlation of Beclin 1 expression to clinicopathologic features and survival of gastric cancer was studied. Beclin-1 expression in gastric cancer cell lines and clinical specimens is also detected using reverse transcription-PCR and Western blotting.ResultsBeclin 1 is up-regulated at both mRNA and protein levels in six gastric cancer cell lines compared with those in normal gastric mucosa cell line (GES-1). The expression of Beclin-1 in gastric clinical specimens is also higher than those in the adjacent noncancerous tissues. Of the 271 patients, 229 (84.5%) were Beclin 1 high expression tumors by immunohistochemistry. Beclin 1 expression is closely associated with intravascular embolus. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed high beclin 1 expression was associated with longer overall survival. Both univariate analysis and multivariate analysis revealed that Beclin 1 expression were independent prognostic factors in the patients with node-positive gastric cancer.ConclusionsOur findings strongly suggest that Beclin 1 has a potential role in tumorigenesis of gastric cancer and could be a promising biomarker for predicting the prognosis of patients with lymph node-positive gastric cancer. It might also serve as a novel therapeutic target for gastric cancer treatment.
Highlights
Gastric cancer remains a major public health problem worldwide, specially in East Asian countries, the age-standardized incidence rate is .20 per 100,000 [1]
The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has become a new marker of gastric cancer following evidence-based principles [12].Adding trastuzumab to standard chemotherapy could change the poor survival of patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer [13,14,15]
Beclin 1 expression in gastric cancer cell lines Overexpression of Beclin 1 has been reported in many cancers
Summary
Gastric cancer remains a major public health problem worldwide, specially in East Asian countries, the age-standardized incidence rate is .20 per 100,000 [1]. For the advanced gastric cancer, its prognosis is still poor, with an estimated overall 5-year survival rate of 25% or less [2,3]. We have found positive lymph node ratio is an independent prognostic indicator to the patients with nodepositive gastric cancer and intraperitoneal chemotherapy may be beneficial [8,9]. A fundamental step toward improving the survival of patients with lymph node-positive gastric cancer lies in the increased understanding of the tumor biological behavior and searching for the possible targets for individual therapy [10,11]. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the expression of beclin 1 in gastric cancer cells, tissues and its relationship with prognosis
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