[Expression and clinical significance of CD44v6 and sCD44v6 in gastric carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlation of CD44v6 and sCD44v6 expression with the biological activity of gastric carcinoma.

METHODS: Mucosa samples from 103 gastric carcinoma patients and 10 healthy persons (control) were examined using immunohistochemical SP method; sCD44v6 level in peripheral blood samples was detected with ELISA in 86 gastric cancer patients, 30 gastric ulcer patients and 30 healthy controls. The follow-up period was 3-91 months for 88 patients in CD44v6 group and 1-91 months for 55 patients in sCD44v6 group.

RESULTS: (1) Positive expression of CD44v6 was found in 60.2% of gastric carcinoma, where as 0% in the normal gastric mucosa. CD44v6 protein expression was positively correlated with TNM stage, perigastric lymph node metastasis, presence of cancerous embolic angiopathy and Borrmann classification (P <0.05), but was not correlated with invasion depth, differentiation, metastasis and survival (P > 0.05); 77.8% of the patient with liver metastasis had a strong CD44v6 protein expression. (2) sCD44v6 level in the peripheral blood of gastric carcinoma patient was significantly higher than that in gastric ulcer patient or healthy control; Compared with palliative gastrectomy, sCD44v6 level significantly went down after radical operation. No relationship between sCD44v6 level and the pathological features was found, which included invasion depth, perigastric lymph node metastasis, presence of cancerous embolic angiopathy, differentiation and Borrmann classification; The survival in the high sCD44v6 level group was longer than that in low sCD44v6 level group ( P = 0.0281), but no significant difference was observed by Cox Regression analysis (P = 0.415). (3) No apparent correlation was observed between CD44v6 expression in gastric cancer and sCD44v6 concentration in peripheral blood (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION: Detection of CD44v6 expression in the gastric cancer may be helpful in evaluating the biological features and the survival in gastric carcinoma. The level of sCD44v6 in the blood may be also helpful in differential diagnosis, evaluation of surgical treatment and biological activity for gastric cancer. No apparent correlation is observed between CD44v6 expression in the cancer and that of sCD44v6 in the blood.