title: Prognostic significance of KLF4 expression in gastric cancer.
abstract: To understand the roles of pluripotent stem cell-inducing genes in gastric cancer, the expression of Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4), Nanog, octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4), avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (c-Myc) and sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2) was examined using the newly developed gastric carcinoma tissue microarray. The associations between the immunohistochemical expression levels of the pluripotency-inducing factors and the clinicopathological data of 108 patients with gastric cancer were analyzed. No associations were identified between the expression levels of the five pluripotency-inducing factors and the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification or clinicopathological characteristics of the patients. In addition, multivariate analysis revealed no association of Nanog, Oct4, SOX2 or c-Myc with the prognosis of the gastric cancer patients; however, low expression of KLF4 was determined to be an independent negative prognostic factor (P=0.0331), particularly in patients who underwent R0 resection (TNM stages 2 and 3; P=0.0048). In summary, low KLF4 expression was found to be negatively associated with overall survival, and may therefore be a useful prognostic marker in gastric cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Isaya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sekine
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moriyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuto
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibuya
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Shozo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hojo
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Koshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Isaku
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yoshioka
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okumura
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Research into Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanobio Drug Discovery, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8304, Japan.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsukada
keywords: Krüppel-like factor 4; gastric cancer; pluripotency-inducing factor