Clinicopathological correlation and prognostic significance of sonic hedgehog protein overexpression in human gastric cancer |
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Authors: | Yanyang Niu Fang Li Bo Tang Yan Shi Yingxue Hao Peiwu Yu |
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Institution: | 1.General Surgery Center of People’s Liberation Army, Military General Surgery Center, Southwest Hospital, The Third Military Medical University, Gaotanyan Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing 400038, People’s Republic of China;2.Department of Stomatology, Southwest Hospital, The Third Military Medical University, Gaotanyan Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing 400038, People’s Republic of China |
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Abstract: | Objectives: This study investigated the expression of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) protein in gastric cancer, and correlated it with clinicopathological parameters. The prognostic significance of Shh protein was analyzed. Methods: Shh protein expression was evaluated in 113 cases of gastric cancer and 60 cases of normal gastric mucosa. The immunoreactivity was scored semi quantitatively as: 0 = absent; 1 = weak; 2 = moderate; and 3 = strong. All cases were further classified into two groups, namely non-overexpression group with score 0 or 1, and overexpression group with score 2 or 3. The overexpression of Shh protein was correlated with clinicopathological parameters. Survival analysis was then performed to determine the Shh protein prognostic significance in gastric cancer. Results: In immunohistochemistry study, nineteen (31.7%) normal gastric mucosa revealed Shh protein overexpression, while eighty-one (71.7%) gastric cancer revealed overexpression. The expression of Shh protein were significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than in normal gastric mucosa (P < 0.001), which was statistically correlated with age (P = 0.006), tumor differentiation (P < 0.001), depth of invasion (P = 0.042), pathologic staging (P = 0.017), and nodal metastasis (P = 0.019). We found no significant difference in both overall and disease free survival rates between Shh overexpression and non-expression groups P = 0.168 and 0.071). However, Shh overexpression emerged as a significant independent prognostic factor in multivariate Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio 1.187, P = 0.041). Conclusions: Shh protein expression is upregulated and is statistically correlated with age, tumor differentiation, depth of invasion, pathologic staging, and nodal metastasis. The Shh protein overexpression is a significant independent prognostic factor in multivariate Cox regression analysis in gastric cancer. |
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Keywords: | Sonic hedgehog pathology prognosis gastric cancer |
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