Prognostic significance of CD44 and nm23 expression in patients with stage II and stage IIIA gastric carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Predicting the prognosis in gastric carcinoma patients with intermediate stages is difficult. We investigated the prognostic impacts of CD44 and nm23 expression in a homogeneous group of patients with stage II and IIIA gastric carcinoma who had undergone curative resections.


METHODS
A total of 261 paraffin-embedded gastric carcinomas were stained with the monoclonal antibodies CD44 and nm23 using the labeled streptovidin biotin method.


RESULTS
The expression of CD44 and nm23 was detected, respectively, in 31.0% (81/261) and 70.1% (183/261) of all tumors. There was no correlation between CD44 expression and clinicopathological variables. However, nm23 was more frequently expressed in older patients with differentiated adenocarcinoma. A significant difference in 5-year survival rates was found between patients with CD44-positive (43.2%) and CD44-negative tumors (63.4%), (P = 0.0018). However, there was no significant difference in 5-year survival rates between patients with nm23-positive (54.7%) and nm23-negative tumors (62.7%) (P = 0.2734).


CONCLUSIONS
CD44 expression was a significant adverse prognostic factor in gastric carcinoma and may be a predictor of metastatic potential of the primary tumor. By contrast, immunohistochemical detection of nm23 expression was not a predictor of outcome of patients with gastric carcinoma.
Yoo
C H
CH
Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
Noh
S H
SH
Kim
H
H
Lee
H Y
HY
Min
J S
JS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D014157:Transcription Factors; C517938:NME1 protein, human; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins