[Expression of CD40 in human gastric cancer tissue and its prognostic correlation]

OBJECTIVE; To investigate the expression of CD40 in gastric cancer and explore the correlation of CD40 with the outcome of patients.

The expression of CD40 was examined by immunohistochemistry in human gastric cancer tissues (73 cases) and adjacent normal gastric tissues (51 cases). CD40 mRNA was detected by RT-PCR in 11 gastric cancer and 11 adjacent normal gastric tissues. The patients were followed up for 60 months. The correlation of CD40 expression and the overall survival time were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier chart and Log-Rank test. Cox model was used for multivariate analysis.

The immunoreactivity of CD40 increased in 35/73 gastric cancer tissues (47.9%) as compared to the tumor-free tissues (P = 0.0063). CD40 mRNA were detected in 72.7% (8/11) gastric cancer tissues, while not in all tumor-free tissues. After a 5-year follow-up, the survival rate was 57.9% (22/38) in CD40-negative patients, and 5.7% (2/35) in CD40-positive patients (P = 0.0022). The median survival time of patients with negative, positive, and strong CD40 expression was 56, 29 and 11 months respectively (P = 0.0085). Cox regression analysis suggested that CD40, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage were independent factors affecting the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.

Normal and malignant gastric tissues are found to have its own unique CD40 expression patterns. CD40 may play a role in metastatic spread of gastric cancer and its expression may be used as an important survival predictor in human gastric cancer.