Expression of Tspan-1 gene in patients with advanced gastric cancer

The present study investigated the correlations of the Tspan-1 gene expression with the clinical characteristics and survival prognoses of patients with advanced gastric cancer. A total of 150 patients with advanced gastric cancer were enrolled in the present study, of whom 84 were at stage II and 66 were at stage III according to the tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging; the immunohistochemical staining method and the semi-quantitative PCR method were used to detect the positive expression rates and mRNA relative expression levels of Tspan-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), E-cadherin and N-cadherin. The positive expression rates of Tspan-1, VEGF, E-cadherin and N-cadherin were 58.0% (87 patients), 50.0% (75 patients), 28.0% (42 patients) and 53.3% (80 patients), respectively. The positive expressions and mRNA levels of Tspan-1, VEGF, E-cadherin and N-cadherin were not correlated with sex or age (P>0.05), but associated with the cancer state (stage II or stage III) and maximum tumor diameter (P<0.05). With the increase of stage and tumor diameter, the positive rates and mRNA levels of Tspan-1, VEGF and N-cadherin were increased, while those of E-cadherin were decreased. Among patients with stage II/III advanced gastric cancer, those with positive expression of Tspan-1, VEGF and N-cadherin had lower median survival time and survival rates than patients with negative expressions, while patients with positive expression of E-cadherin had higher median survival time and survival rate than those with negative expression (P<0.05). The high expression of Tspan-1 gene is associated with the TNM staging of advanced gastric cancer and the tumor diameter, influences the survival prognosis, and may involve the processes of angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition.