Correlation between serum angiopoietin-2 levels and lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer

Abstract

Objective To study the correlation between preoperative serum angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) levels and lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer(EGC).Methods Preoperative serum Ang-2 and CEA levels in 62 patients with EGG and 30 normal controls were measured by ELISA technique respectively.The metastasis of lymph node in these cases were determined by HE staining.The relation between preoperative serum Ang-2 levels and lymph node metastasis in EGC and pathologic characterization was investigated.Results Compared with normal controls,preoperative serum Ang-2 levels in EGC group were significantly elevated [( 282.5 ± 110.6 ) μg/L vs ( 187.4 ± 32.7 ) μg/L,P ＜ 0.01].Preoperative serum Ang-2 levels in node-positive gastric cancer group was significantly higher than that in the node-negative gastric cancer group [(34 7.2 ± 79.5 ) μg/L vs (265.6 ± 90.2) μg/L,P ＜ 0.01],while CEA levels changed a little.Preoperative serum Ang-2 levels in the EGC group presented marked correlation with the differentiated degree of the tumor tissue,tumor size,depth of tumor invasion but it had no correlation with the histological type.Preoperative serum Ang-2 levels were an independent high-risk factor of lymph node metastasis in EGC according to multivariate logistic regression analysis.Conclusions Preoperative serum Ang-2 levels may be a good clinical predictor for lymph node metastasis of EGC,which is useful for the treatment direction. Key words: Angiopoietin-2/blood; Stomach neoplasms/metabolism/pathology; Lymphatic metastasis