Keratin 17 expression correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma

Keratin 17 (K17) is regarded as a basal/myoepithelial cell keratin and is known to be inducible in activated keratinocytes. The high frequency of K17 expression in pancreaticobiliary nonmucinous adenocarcinoma or basal-like breast carcinoma has previously been described. However, its expression in gastric cancer (GC) is controversial.

We investigated the clinicopathological features and prognostic significance of 192 patients with GC by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays. Analysis of epithelial markers including K17, K14, and K5/6, cell cycle-associated proteins p53, Ki-67, and 14-3-3 sigma, and mucinous phenotype markers including CD10, CDX2, MUC5AC, and MUC6 was performed.

Cytoplasmic expression of K17 was observed in 95 (49.5%) of 192 patients with GC. K17 expression positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.003) and advanced stages of the disease (P = 0.014). K17 expression was significantly correlated with 14-3-3 sigma expression (P < 0.001) and CD10 expression (P = 0.015). The overall survival rates of patients with K17-positive GC were significantly lower than those with negative K17 expression (50.5 vs. 71.1%, P = 0.004). Univariate analysis revealed that K17 expression confers a poor prognosis in patients with GC (P = 0.004), and it was also an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P = 0.049).

K17 expression is correlated with tumor progression in GC and may serve as a biomarker for poor prognosis.