Clinicopathological significance of MMP-7, laminin γ2 and EGFR expression at the invasive front of gastric carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
For several types of cancer, including gastric cancer (GC), tumor cells at the invasive front are considered to have a more aggressive behavior compared with those in the more central region. The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of MMP-7, laminin γ2 and EGFR in a large number of GCs and to investigate how these expression patterns correlate with clinicopathologic parameters, infiltrative patterns, histology or mucin phenotype.


METHODS
We immunohistochemically examined the expression of MMP-7, laminin γ2 and EGFR using a tissue microarray analysis of 790 GCs, and evaluated their clinicopathological significance.


RESULTS
MMP-7, cytoplasmic laminin γ2, extracellular laminin γ2 and EGFR expression were observed in 25, 25, 8 and 21 % of the 790 GC cases, respectively. Expression of MMP-7, cytoplasmic laminin γ2 and EGFR was associated with advanced T grade, N grade and tumor stage. Extracellular laminin γ2 expression was not associated with any clinicopathologic parameters, infiltrative patterns, histology or mucin phenotype. Furthermore, we investigated the correlations of MMP-7, laminin γ2 and EGFR expression. MMP-7 expression was significantly more frequent in positive expression of cytoplasmic laminin γ2 than negative cases, and EGFR expression was significantly more frequent in positive expression of cytoplasmic laminin γ2 and MMP-7.


CONCLUSIONS
Molecular expression of MMP-7, laminin γ2 or EGFR, and their combinations, may be associated with GC tumor aggressiveness. Assessment of expression of these molecules at the invasive front of primary tumors is clinically significant in predicting the malignant behavior of GC.
Department of Molecular Pathology, Hiroshima University Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima, 734-8551, Japan.
Kazuhiro
K
Sentani
Miho
M
Matsuda
Naohide
N
Oue
Naohiro
N
Uraoka
Yutaka
Y
Naito
Naoya
N
Sakamoto
Wataru
W
Yasui
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007797:Laminin / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D020783:Matrix Metalloproteinase 7 / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis
C400567:LAMC2 protein, human; D007797:Laminin; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D020783:Matrix Metalloproteinase 7