DCC and TS protein expression in resected gastric cancer: A Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group Study

Abstract

There is a high risk of relapse after resection of gastric cancer. We studied the prognostic significance of the deleted colorectal cancer (DCC) gene and thymidylate synthase (TS) protein expression after resection of gastric cancer. Protein expression in the primary tumor of 146 patients with serosal and/or lymph node involvement was studied immunohistochemically by using anti-DCC and anti-TS monoclonal antibodies. DCC expression was found in 69.9%, while low TS staining intensity (0+,1+) and focal staining (<25% of tumor cells stained) were found in 44.6% and 33.8%, respectively. Overall survival (OS) was significantly longer in patients with DCC (p=0.014) negative tumors. TS expression was not an independent prognostic factor. Lack of DCC expression was associated with significantly longer cause-specific survival (CSS) (p=0.040) after curative resection. In conclusion, DCC expression is an independent prognostic factor in patients undergoing resection of gastric cancer while TS expression was not associated with the prognosis in our study. © 2008 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag.