LGR5 is a promising biomarker for patients with stage I and II gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expressions in gastric cancer and to evaluate its clinical significance.


METHODS
LGR5 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 257 gastric cancer patients after surgery. The relationships between LGR5 expression and clinicopathological features and patients prognosis were statistically analyzed.


RESULTS
The expression of LGR5 was significantly higher in gastric cancers as a cancer stem cell marker than in adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001), and more frequently in patients with intestinal type, well-moderate differentiation and stage I and II (P<0.05). Although we found gastric cancer patients with LGR5 positive expression had a poorer prognosis, it didn't meet statistical signiﬁcance (P>0.05). LGR5 negative expression was significantly related to the favorable overall survival in stage I and II gastric cancer patients (P<0.05). Furthermore, patients with high LGR5 expression tended to be more likely to get progression and have poorer progress-free survival (P<0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that LGR5 expression was an independent factor of overall survival for the patients with stage I and II gastric cancer (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that LGR5 may play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression and would be a powerful marker to predict the prognosis of patients with stage I and II gastric cancer.
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing 100142, China;
Zhaode
Z
Bu
Zhixue
Z
Zheng
Lianhai
L
Zhang
Ziyu
Z
Li
Yu
Y
Sun
Bin
B
Dong
Aiwen
A
Wu
Xiaojiang
X
Wu
Xiaohong
X
Wang
Xiaojing
X
Cheng
Xiaofang
X
Xing
Yingai
Y
Li
Hong
H
Du
Jiafu
J
Ji
Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5); biomarker; cancer stem cell; gastric cancer; prognosis