Mismatch repair gene hMSH2 protein as predictive maker for gastric carcinoma

Abstract

To study the possibility of mismatch repair gene hMSH2 as a marker to predict the occurrence of gastric carcinoma. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect hMSH2 protein expressions of gastric carcinomas (carcinoma group) and their surrounding epithelia (surrounding epithelium group) in patients and the epithelia (normal epithelium group) in persons without carcinoma. The positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in nucleus of carcinoma, surrounding epithelium and normal epithelium groups were 44.94% (71/158), 28.48% (45/158) and 11.76% (4/34), respectively (P=0.000); the positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in plasma of the 3 groups were 37.97% (60/158), 27.85% (44/158) and 23.53% (8/34), respectively (P=0.084); the positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in both nucleus and plasma of the 3 groups were 20.89% (33/158), 17.72% (28/158) and 2.94% (1/34), respectively (P=0.045). Although the difference of positive rates between carcinoma and surrounding epithelium groups was not significant (P=0.476), both of them were higher than that of normal epithelium group (P=0.018). Our findings show that the detection of hMSH2 protein expression in gastric epithelia may help to predict and diagnose gastric carcinoma.