Abstract

BACKGROUND
Gastric cancer is reported to be one of the leading causes of mortality in Korea. Our aim was to evaluate the clinicopathologic usefulness of cyclin E, p53, E-cadherin and beta-catenin expressions in gastric adenocarcinomas.
METHODS
Immunohistochemical staining was performed on the 40 early gastric carcinoma (EGC) cases and 69 advanced gastric carcinoma (AGC) cases to examine the relationship with the clinicopathologic parameters.
RESULTS
Cyclin E and p53 expressions were significantly lower in the mucosal or submucosal invasion group compared with those in the muscle invasion and subserosal or serosal invasion groups. Cyclin E expression was significantly higher in the node-positive group compared with that in the node-negative group. The loss of beta-catenin expression was significantly higher in the node-negative group. p53 expression was significantly higher in the intestinal type group than that in the diffuse type group. Loss of E-cadherin expression was significantly higher in the diffuse type group. Cyclin E expression correlates with p53 expression.
CONCLUSIONS
The depth of invasion seems to correlate with cyclin E and p53 expressions. Lymph node metastasis may correlate with loss of beta-catenin expression.

• Keywords: Gastric Cancer;Cyclin E;E-cadherin;beta-catenin;p53;