title: The clinicopathologic importance of serum lactic dehydrogenase in patients with gastric cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To explore possible correlation between serum lactate dehydrogenase (SLDH) levels and gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed 365 patients with gastric cancer. The correlation of SLDH levels with clinicopathologic features and survival rate was studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SLDH levels were closely associated with the pathological (p) T stage (P = 0.011), metastasis (P = 0.012), pTNM stage (P = 0.001), and recurrence (P = 0.012). Moreover, we found a significant SLDH level difference among Borrmann type (P = 0.027), pT stage (P = 0.004), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.027), metastasis (P < 0.001), pTNM stage (P = 0.006), and recurrence (P = 0.002). In addition, we detected a significant SLDH level difference between alive and dead subgroups (P = 0.001). In addition, both univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed that high SLDH levels were independent prognostic factor. For the subgroup with normal LDH (median point of 157.0 U/L), we detected that the subset with SLDH levels ≥157 U/L (158-245 U/L) showed poorer OS (P = 0.005) and DFS (P = 0.01) than that of ≤157 subgroup.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that high SLDH level could be an independent poor prognostic biomarker. Gastric cancer patients with relative high SLDH level (158-245 U/L) were prone to develop a shorter OS and DFS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Fanghai
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Shibin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Jianhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhan
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000401:mortality
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase