Prognostic value of metastatic tumoral caveolin-1 expression in patients with resected gastric cancer.

Abstract

83 Background: Caveolin-1 (Cav-1), as the main component of caveolae, has complex roles in tumourigenesis and clinical outcomes in a variety of human malignancies. We investigated Cav-1 in primary and metastatic tumor of gastric cancer (GC) and its association with clinical outcomes. Methods: All specimens evaluated were obtained from 145 patients with GC who had undergone curative gastrectomy. The primary outcomes measured were the expression levels of Cav-1 by immunohistochemistry and its association with clinicopathological parameters and patient survival. Results: Among the 145 patients, the frequency of high expression of stromal Cav-1 within primary tumor and tumoral Cav-1 protein in metastatic lymph node were 22.5% (18/145) and 16.6% (15/91). In the multivariate analysis tumoral Cav-1 protein in metastatic lymph node showed prognostic significance for relapse-free survival (RFS, HR, 3.934; 95% CI, 1.882–8.224; P < 0.001) and cancer-specific survival outcome (CSS, HR, 3.985; 95% CI, 1.620 – 8.623; P = 0.002). In addition, it remained as a strong indicator of poor prognosis for RFS (HR, 3.137; 95% CI, 1.445 – 6.810; P = 0.004) and CSS (HR, 2.509; 95% CI, 1.079 – 5.838; P = 0.033). Conclusions: High expression of tumoral Cav-1 protein in metastatic lymph node shows a strong negative association with the clinical outcomes in patients with curatively resected GC, suggesting that this protein have potential uses as novel prognostic markers.