title: Prognostic significance of the local expression of interleukin-12 in patients with advanced gastric cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Interleukin (IL)-12 is a heterodimeric cytokine that exhibits potent antitumor and antimetastatic activities. Very few studies have so far investigated the local expression of L-12 in tumor specimens of gastric cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of IL-12 in patients with gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  IL-12 was immunohistochemically stained using monoclonal antihuman IL-12 antibody (1-1A4) in surgical specimens of 117 gastric cancer patients. The IL-12-positive cell density was calculated. The relationships among the IL-12-positive cell density, clinicopathological factors and 5-year survival rate were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the patients (n=117), the 5-year survival rate after surgery was not statistically different between the patients with high and low IL-12 positive cell-density. However, in the patients with advanced gastric cancer (n=85), those with a high IL-12-positive cell density showed a significantly better prognosis in comparison with those with a low IL-12-positive cell density (p=0.0104). A multivariate analysis indicated that the IL-12-positive cell density and TNM stage are significant prognostic factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IL-12-positive cell density may be a significant independent prognostic factor in surgical specimens of advanced gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery 1, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kita-Kyushu City, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Yuzuru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Noritaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minagawa
authors.forename: Takefumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katsuki
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibao
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Tatsuhiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sako
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nagata
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery
chemical_list: D018664:Interleukin-12