Abstract

BACKGROUND
Survivin, a novel antiapoptotic gene has been linked with tumor development and progression in various human carcinomas including gastric carcinomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of survivin in gastric carcinoma and its correlation with tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis. METHODS: Expression of survivin was evaluated immunohistochemically in 84 surgically resected gastric carcinomas. Tumor cell apoptosis was evaluated with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick-end labeling (TUNEL), and Ki-67 immunostaining was used for evaluation of tumor cell proliferation. RESULTS: Expression of survivin was noted in 53.6% of the gastric carcinomas, and was significantly associated with depth of invasion, status of lymph node metastasis or tumor stage (p=0.022, 0.034, 0.040, respectively). There was an inverse correlation between survivin expression and apoptotic index (p=0.015). But there was no significant correlation between survivin expression and Ki-67 labeling index (p=0.430). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that survivin expression may contribute to tumor development and progression by inhibiting apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma.

• Keywords: BIRC5 protein;Cell proliferation;Apoptosis;Stomach neoplasms