High expression level of insulin-like growth factor I receptor is associated with regional lymph node metastasis

Abstract

4115 Background: Over-expression of the insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR) has been found in many types of human cancers. In vivo, inhibition of the function of IGF-IR results in apoptosis and tumor growth attenuation, indicating that altered expression of IGF-IR may play an important role in human cancer. However, the role of IGF-IR in gastric cancer has not been explored. Methods: In this study, we determined the expression status of the IGF-IR in primary gastric cancer using immunohistochemistry. Results: In the 86 cases of resected gastric cancer examined, IGF-IR was over-expressed in 61.6% gastric tumor samples as compared to the adjacent cancer-free gastric mucosa (p=0.018). In patients with lymph node metastasis, high expression level of IGF-IR was detected in both the primary tumor site and metastatic tumor cells with lymph nodes (p=0.0102), implicating IGF-IR in the development of lymph node metastasis. It has been reported that the transcription factor Sp1 transactivates the IGF-IR p...