Expression Of PTEN, VEGF And MMP2 And Their Correlation With Tumor Invasion, Metastasis And Prognosis In Human Gastric Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of PTEN,VEGF and MMP2 in gastric carcinoma, and to identify the relationship between expression of PTEN, VEGF and MMP2 and their correlation with tumor invasion, metastasis and prognosis. Methods 80 patients with gastric carcinoma who underwent surgical resection between 1995.1 and 1998.6 at the Fist Affiliated Hospital, Anhui Medical University were followed up. Expression of PTEN, VEGF and MMP2 was examined by SP-method immunohistochemistry in all 80 archival paraffinembedded gastric carcinoma tissue specimens, and expression of PTEN was also examined by SP-method immunohistochemistry in 20 normal gastric tissue specimens in the same time as control groups. The relationship of PTEN, VEGF and MMP2 and their relationship with clinical and biologic factors and prognosis was analyzed by SPSS 11.5 for Windows software. Results (l)Expression of PTEN in gastric carcinoma 35/80(43.8%) was significantly lower than that in normal gastric tissues 19/20(95.0%), P<0.01;(2)Expression of PTEN was significantly correlated with patients' age, tumor differentiation, depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor staging, but wasn't correlated with patients' gender, tumor size and tumor growth.(3) Expression of VEGF and MMP2 significantly correlated with tumor size, tumor differentiation, depth of tumor invasion ,lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor staging, but wasn't correlated with patients' age, patients' gender and tumor growth.(4)Expression of PTEN was negatively correlated with that of VEGF and MMP2; Expression of VEGF was positively correlated with that of MMP2. (5) The 3 year postoperation survival rate of patients was significantly correlated with depth oftumor invasion, distant metastasis and tumor staging, but the 5 year postoperation survival rate of patients was significantly correlated with depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor staging; The 3, 5 year postoperation survival rates of patients with highly expression of PTEN were significantly higher than those with reduced expression of PTEN; The 3, 5 year postoperation survival rates of patients with positively expression of VEGF and MMP2 were significantly lower than those with negatively expression of VEGF and MMP2; Kaplan-Meier survival curves also showed that the survival time of patients with highly expression of PTEN were significantly longer than those with reduced expression of PTEN, Log-rank test, P<0.05,but the survival time of patients with positively expression of VEGF and MMP2 were significantly shorter than those with negatively expression of VEGF and MMP2, Log-rank test, P<0.01; Univariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards model found that prognosis of patients with gastric carcinoma was significantly correlated with depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor staging and expression of PTEN,VEGF and MMP2; Multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards model found that depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, tumor staging and expression of VEGF and MMP2 in gastric carcinoma were independent risk factorS,but expression of PTEN was not independent risk factor. Conclusion (1) Expression of PTEN in gastric carcinoma was significantly lower than that in normal gastric tissues and reduced expression of PTEN could help the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma at early stage. (2)Expression of PTEN, VEGF and MMP2 significantly correlated with clinical and biological factors and they were important factors determining molecular and biological features of gastric carcinoma. (3)Expression of PTEN significantly correlated with that of VEGF and MMP2. PTEN could suppress tumor invasion and metastasis by means of regulating the expression of VEGF and MMP2. (4)Reduced expression of PTEN and highly expression of VEGF and MMP2 promoted tumor invasion and metastasis in gastric carcinoma. Detectingcould help to choose an appropriate operation. (5)Clicical and biological factors,especial]y tumor invasion...