Aims: To investigate the relationships between integrin alphanubeta6 expression and the clinical-pathological features of gastric carcinoma and whether integrin alphanubeta6 can act as a prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma.
Materials and methods: We generated the microarray of 300 human gastric carcinoma specimens, and used the method of immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of alphanubeta6 in them and the relationships between the expression of alphanubeta6 and the clinical-pathological features of the tumours. Meanwhile, we retrospectively analysed the relationship between alphanubeta6 expression and the survival times of the patients.
Results: The expression of alphanubeta6 was detected in 36.7% of gastric carcinomas, and the expression was associated with Lauren type, differentiation, N stage and TNM stage of the tumours (the P values were 0.004, 0.035, 0.024 and 0.001, respectively). The Kaplan-Meier plot showed that patients who were alphanubeta6 negative had much longer survival times than those who were alphanubeta6 positive (P<0.0001). The survival estimates showed a striking difference in median survival between the negative and positive alphanubeta6 expression patients, especially in early stage tumours. Univariate analysis indicated that significant factors for prognosis included alphanubeta6 expression, differentiation, TNM stage, T stage, N stage, M stage and R classification (R0: potentially curative resection; R1: had residual microscopic disease after resection; R2: had residual macroscopic disease after resection), whereas in multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model, only alphanubeta6 expression, M stage, TNM stage and R classification retained significance for prognosis.
Conclusions: Positive alphanubeta6 expression in gastric carcinoma is linked to significantly reduced survival times and, even more important, is that its value as a prognostic marker is significant for early stage tumours.