title: Serum human hepatocyte growth factor (hHGF) is elevated in patients with metastatic gastric carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a stromally derived protein growth factor that modulates epithelial cell proliferation and motility. HGF may therefore be involved in tumor progression.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured the immunoreactive (ir)-HGF concentration in the sera of 56 patients with human gastric carcinoma, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and evaluated its association with clinical and histopathologic factors. Clinical stages were classified in accordance with The General Rules for TNM Classification (International Union Against Cancer).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The serum hHGF concentrations from patients with gastric carcinoma significantly increased with increasing pathologic tumor grades. Also, there were significantly higher concentrations in patients with nodal metastasis compared to patients without metastasis. The serum hHGF concentrations in patients with liver metastasis were significantly higher than in patients without liver metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data show that the serum hHGF concentration is elevated in gastric carcinoma patients with liver and nodal metastasis. In multivariate analysis, the serum hHGF concentration was found to be the most important independent factor in predicting overall survival. Thus, the current results suggest that HGF may be important in the progression and metastasis of gastric carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of General and Gastroenterological Surgery, Osaka Medical College, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niki
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Isozaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishibashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mabuchi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishiguchi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanigawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000556:secondary; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor