Prognostic Significance of E-cadherin, -catenin, c-erbB2, and p53 in Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Purpose: Although the TNM stage is the most important prognostic factor for gastric cancer, there is a need for new prognostic factors, because the prognosis varies among patients of the same stage. The aim of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of E-cadherin, -catenin, c-erb B2, and p53 in patients with gastric cancers. Materials and Methods: Loss of membranous expression of E-cadherin & -catenin, abnormal c-erb B2 membranous expression, and overexpression of p53 were investigated immunohistochemically using 96 cases of paraffin embedded tissue of gastric car- cinomas at Soonchunhyang University in 2002. These were correlated with the clinicopathological parameters such as age, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, histology, Lauren classification, and survival were analyzed retrospectively. There were 61 males and 35 females (1.7:1) with a mean age of 57.5 years (range:36~73 years). Results: The percentage of abnormal expression of E-cadherin, -catenin, c-erbB-2, and p53 were 76/96 (79.2%), 62/96 (64.6%), 48/96 (50%), and 45/96 (46.9%), respectively. Abnormal expression of E-cadherin occurred more frequently in serosa-invasive than serosa-noninvasive groups (p occured regardless of the stage. Abnormal expression of -catenin, c-erb B2, and p53 were not related with clnicopathological para- meters. The prognosis was associated with lymph node metastasis (p=0.0087) and serosa invasion (p=0.0277) in an univariate analy- sis. Lymph node metastasis is an independent prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancers(p=0.0047). Conclusion: Although this study was performed with small number of cases and shortage of the follow-up time, E-cadherin showed the possibility as one of prognostic factors in gastric cancer.