The Expression Of E-Cadherin And α,β-Catenin Gene In Gastric Cancer: Re-lationship With Biological Behavior And The Patient Survival

Background and Aims There are many data to support that the E-cadherin-catenin complex plays a critical role in the maintenance of normal tissue architecture and cell-cell adhersion. Mutation, reduced or abnormal expression of any of its components,such as E-cadherin, a-catenin or β-catenin is believed to result in loss of cell-cell adhesion and contribute to the development, progress, invading and lymphatic metastasis of neoplasia. Many studies have also proved that the abnormal of E-cadherin-catenin complex in cancer patients will reduce the survival rate. So that, they were be considered as products of tumor suppress gene in many investigations and be expected as a new approach to treat cancer in future. But up to now, most of the previour studies concentrate their work to revel the function in one or two components of E-cadherin-catenin complex. The potential role of simultaneous expression of E-cadherin-catenin complex in the gastric cancer and the relationship between the expression and the tumor biological behavior was unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of E-cadherin , a, and β-catenin in gastric carcinoma and determine any relationship with tumor biological characteristics and patienf s survival.Material and Methods Immunoperoxidase staining of E-cadherin and a-and β-catenin was performed using 50 samples with gastric carcinoma, (male 39;female 11;age; 54.0± 12. 6) acquiring from the patients whom received redical resection for gastric carcinoma from January 1997 to December 1997 in our hospital, and the normal gastric biopsy specimens were obtained from 10 healthy controls under clinic gastroscopy.Results The positive membranous immunohistochmical staining of three components of the E-cadherin-catenin complex (E-cadherin, a-catenin and β-catenin) was observed in all 10 normal control biopsy specimens. In the 50 cases, up to 78% of gastric tumors stained abnormally including at least one or more components of the cadherin-catenin complex. Abnormal E-cadherin and a-catenin staining occurred more frequently in diffuse gastric tumors than intestinal (P<0. 05; P<0. 01 respectively). No association with tumor grade was found when the tumor histological classified are high, middle and low differentiations in all there factors, but there are statistical difference significantly when they weredivide into two groups (high/middle and low differentiations) on the test of E-cadherin and ct-catenin (P<0. 05). The E-cadherin and P-catenin association closely with TNM grade (P<0. 01;P<0. 01), deep of invade (P<0. 05;P<0. 05), lymph metastases (P<0. 05? P<0. 05) and the size of tumor(P<0. 05; P<0. 05). Using Kaplan-meyer analysis , an obvious survival advantage was noted in the patients whom have normal membranous expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin(P<0. 05;P<0. 01 respectively). There are also survival advantage was observed in retaining normal membranous expression of β-catenin with intestinal and diffuse tumors (P<0. 05).Conclusions Abnormal expression of the E-cadherin-catenin complex occurs frequently in gastric carcinoma. But the E-cadherin and p-catenin give more contribute to the biological characteristic of gastric cancer. Normal expression of the two factors will led to reduce the ability of invasive and metastases in gastric tumor. The close correlation with poor survival suggests that abnormal expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin may be a useful prognostic markers in gastric cancer.