title: Differential expression of Notch1 intracellular domain and p21 proteins, and their clinical significance in gastric cancer.
abstract: Changes in the expression of the Notch1 intracellular domain (NICD) and p21 proteins have been shown to be closely associated with the development and progression of a number of cancers. The present study aimed to investigate the expression levels of the two proteins in gastric carcinoma and precancerous lesions, and to determine the clinical significance of this. A total of 109 gastric cancer, 57 precancerous gastric lesion, 50 chronic superficial gastritis and 17 normal gastric mucosa patients were recruited for immunohistochemical staining of NICD and p21 protein expression. The protein expression levels in the gastric cancer patient samples were associated with the clinicopathological and survival data. NICD protein levels were upregulated gradually from normal gastric mucosae through chronic superficial gastritis and precancerous gastric lesions to gastric cancer tissues (P<0.01), whereas p21 protein levels were downregulated accordingly (P<0.01). Increased NICD and a loss of p21 expression were closely associated with tumor dedifferentiation, depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, surface morphology and Lauren classification in gastric cancer. Thus, NICD expression was inversely associated with p21 expression. In addition, the overall survival rate was greater in NICD-and P21+patients than in NICD+and P21-patients, respectively (P<0.05). The COX regression multivariate analysis revealed that NICD+, p21-, depth of tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis were all independent prognostic factors for patients with gastric cancer. NICD and p21 proteins are differentially expressed in gastric cancer and the aberrant expression of these proteins is associated with an advanced tumor stage, tumor metastasis and overall patient survival. Future studies are required to further evaluate the two proteins as novel prognostic markers for patients with gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China ; Department of Gastroenterology, Taizhou Hospital, Linhai, Zhejiang 317000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ding-Hai
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Sun-Kuan
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yi-Qun
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chao-Chao
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tie-Su
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jian-Sheng
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China ; Department of Epidemiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jin
keywords: Notch1 intracellular doman; biomarkers; gastric cancer; p21; prognosis