High expression of heparanase-2 is an independent prognostic parameter for favorable survival in gastric cancer patients

Abstract

Aim: Heparanase-2 expression has been suggested to up-regulate in several types of human cancers. However, the expression patterns of heparanase-2 in gastric cancer and its effect on prognosis of gastric cancer patients are unclear. Methods: In this study, the methods of tissue microarray, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and western blot were used to investigate heparanase-2 expression in gastric cancer and the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Heparanase-2 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 95 clinicopathologically characterized gastric cancer cases. In addition Fisher's exact test, Kaplan–Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the results. Results: High expression of cytoplasmic heparanase-2 was observed in 70.5% (67/95) of gastric cancer, when compared with its normal counterpart. Overexpression of heparanase-2 was correlated with tumor size and differentiation (P<0.05). Further analysis showed that a significant correlation between high expression of heparanase-2 and favorable prognosis (P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, high expression of heparanase-2 was evaluated as an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer (P<0.05). ConclusionsOur data suggest for the first time that the high expression of heparanase-2 is associated significantly with tumor growth and differentiation. Importantly, heparanase-2 may be a potential molecular marker for predicting prognosis of gastric cancer.