Expression Of TP,HIF-1α And VEGF In Gastric Carcinoma Tissues And Their Relationships With Prognosis

Objective To explore the expression of thymidine phosphorylase (TP),hypo-xia inducible factor 1α(HIF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in gastric carcinoma and to analyze their correlations with clini-copathologic features and prognosis.Methods The expression of TP, HIF-1αand VEGF in 62 cases with gastriccarcinoma tissue specimens were obtained from patients who had receivedradical gastectomy in Yanbian University Hospital between 1999 and2001, fixed in 4％paraformaldehyde, embedded in paraffin. 20 cases withnormal gastric mucosa tissue specimens were collected from the hospitalat the same time. All tissue specimens were detected by SABCimmunohistochemiscal method. Then the influences of TP, HIF-1αand VEGFexpression on 5-year survival time was investigated. And the results wereanalyzed respectively.Results The positive rates of TP, HIF-1αand VEGF protein expressionwere 69.4％, 66.6％and 61.3％in 62 patients with gastric carcinomarespectively. The levels of TP, HIF-1αand VEGF cancer cell were more thanthat of normal gastric epithelial cell (P＜0.01).TP expression was notcorrelated with patient's age, sex and the degree of tumor differentiation (P＞0.05). It was positively related with tumor size (P=0.030), depth ofinvasion (P=0.040), lymph node metastasis (P=0.000), distant metastasis(P=0.047) andclinicalstage (P=0.014); HIF-1αand VEGF were positivelyrelated with tumor depth of invasion (P=0.015, 0.000), lymph node metastasis(P=0.037,0.017) and clinical stage (P=0.029,0.029).Expression of TP wassignificantly related with the expression of VEGF (r_s=0.440, P=0.000); VEGFwas significantly related with the expression of HIF-1α(r_s=0.610, P=0.000).But there was no relationship between the expression of TP and theexpression of HIF-1α(r_s=0.205, P=0.110). Moreover, the 5-year survival ratewas significantly better for the TP/HIF-1α/VEGF-negative group than forthe TP/ HIF-1α/VEGF-positive group. Multivariate analysis by Cox'sproportional hazard model showed that lymph node metastasis, distantmetastasis, the expressions of VEGF and HIF-1αand PTMN stage wereindependent prognostic factors in patients with gastric carcinoma.Conclusion TP, HIF-1αand VEGF were all overexpressed in gastriccarcinoma. TP expression was significantly correlated with VEGF; VEGF wassignificantly correlated with HIF-1α. But there was no correlation betweenTP expression and HIF-1αexpression. The overexpressed of TP, HIF-1αandVEGF related with poor biological behavior and prognosis of gastriccarcinoma. They can be taken as useful predicators for predictinginvasion, metastasis and prognosis of gastric carcinoma.