Prognostic role of neuroendocrine cell differentiation in human gastric carcinoma

The objective of the current study was to investigate the significance and biologic characteristic of neuroendocrine cell differentiation (NED) in gastric carcinoma by comparing the prognosis and clinicopathologic characteristics between patients with or without NED. Retrospective analyses of neuroendocrine markers, neuron specific enolase (NSE), chromogranin A (CgA), and synaptophysin (Syn) were performed in 174 human gastric carcinoma patients. NED association was found in 21.3% gastric carcinoma patients, with or without NED, and was correlated with tumor location, cancer emboli, infiltrative depth, TNM stage and distant metastasis (P < 0.05 in each case). The 1-year and 3-year survival rate of the patients who suffered from gastric carcinoma with NED were significantly lower than those without NED. The overall survival time of patients with NED was shorter than those with gastric carcinoma without NED, with a significant difference between the two types (P = 0.037). Cumulatively, gastric carcinoma patients with NED had shorter postoperative survival time and poorer prognosis.