Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) in advanced gastric cancer

Abstract

BackgroundFew studies have reported the clinical and prognostic significance of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) in advanced gastric cancer (GC). Therefore, the present study investigated the expression of CHOP in advanced GC patients to determine its potential prognostic role. MethodsThe levels of CHOP in 95 patients with advanced GC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were evaluated by qRT-PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the association of CHOP expression with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of advanced GC patients was analyzed. ResultsThe levels of CHOP were down-regulated in advanced GC compared with non-cancerous tissues (P<0.01). In addition, high CHOP expression more frequently occurred in advanced GC tissues with depth of invasion of T1-2 (P < 0.01), lower clinical stage (TNM Ⅰ-Ⅱ stage) (P<0.05) and without lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). No significant difference was observed between the expression of CHOP and age, gender, tumor size, lesion site and differentiation (P>0.05). The Kaplan-Meier survival analyses showed that the overall survival rate of advanced GC patients with positive CHOP expression was significantly higher than that of patients with negative CHOP expression (P<0.01). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models revealed that low CHOP expression (OR = 0.314, 95%CI: 0.176～0.794, P = 0.003) was an independent factor for poor overall survival in advanced GC patients. ConclusionLow expression of CHOP predicts the poor prognosis of advanced GC patients, and CHOP may be a prognostic biomarker for patients with advanced GC.