Abstract:

Background and purpose: The recurrence and metastasis of gastric cancer seriously affect survival in patients. SOX gene as a regulatory factor of the classical Wnt pathway, may play an important role in the process. This study was to explore the expression of stem cell marker SOX-2 and β-catenin in gastric cancer and to analyze the relationship with recurrence and metastasis after operation. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of SOX-2 and β-catenin in 71 tumor samples from 71 cases after surgery for gastric cancer. The correlation between SOX-2 and β-catenin expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer and disease-free survival was analyzed. Results: The SOX-2 protein expression was associated with metastasis, lymph node infiltration or differentiation (P=0.011, P=0.036, P=0.034) in the 71 gastric cancer, but not with gender, age or T stage.β-catenin expression was correlated with metastasis, lymph node invasion or T stage (P=0.025, P=0.014, P=0.026), but was not related to differentiation, gender or age. The survival analysis showed that SOX-2 and β-catenin expression was closely associated with prognosis of patients, and metastatic rate in positive expression was higher than that in negative expression. Conclusion: The expression of SOX-2 and β-catenin is associated with the development, recurrence, metastasis of gastric cancer and may be used as a useful prognostic parameter to predict overall survival.

Key words: Gastric cancer, SOX-2, β-catenin, Metastasis