Expression of CK18 in gastric cancer and regional metastatic lymph node and its significance

CHAI Junhui; ZHANG Zhandong; MA Qi; HUA Yawei

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-437X2014.09.001

Abstract：Objective:To detect the expression of cytokeratin 18 ( CK18 ) in gastric cancer and re-gional lymph nodes and explore the significance of CK 18 for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer .Methods:150 cases of gastric cancer were selected , including 30 cases of mucinous ade-nocarcinoma , 34 cases of papillary adenocarcinoma , 27 cases of tubular adenocarcinoma , 44 cases of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma , 15 cases of signet ring cell carcinoma .Immunohistochem-istry was used to detect expression levels of CK 18 in gastric cancer tissue and regional lymph nodes to clarify the correlation between CK18 and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer .Results:The expression of CK18 was not correlated with gender , age of gastric cancer patients with or with-out metastatic lymph nodes ( P>0 .05 ) .The types of tumor was not correlated with CK 18 ( P>0 .05 ) .The positive rate of CK 18 was significantly increased in gastric cancer with lymph node metastasis, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).In gastric cancer patients with metastatic lymph nodes , the expression of CK18 was correlated with the number of metastatic lymph nodes.The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusion:The expression of CK18 in gastric cancer and regional lymph nodes detected by immunohistochemical method could be helpful to assess the prognosis of gastric cancer and improve the detection rate of metastat -ic lymph nodes .It could provide the basis for establishing TNM stage and improving the adjuvant treatment after operation .