Department of Surgical Oncology, Institute of Geriatrics and Medical Science, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
Anticancer Res. 2010 Dec;30(12):5239-43.
BACKGROUND/AIM: Vimentin expression in epithelial cells is reported to be associated with the malignant phenotype of cancer cells in vitro. However, the clinical significance of vimentin expression in carcinomas is not well understood. The aim of this study was to clarify the significance of vimentin-positive gastric cancer (GC).
A total of 265 GCs were examined by immunofluorescent staining with antibodies against vimentin and carcinoembryonic antigen. GCs were determined to be vimentin-positive when cells were positive for both vimentin and carcinoembryonic antigen staining.
A total of 86 (32%) of 265 GCs were vimentin positive. There was a statistically significant correlation between vimentin-positive GCs and advanced clinical stage (p<0.001), macroscopic scirrhous-type (p < 0.001), histological diffuse-type (p < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.008) and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.013). The prognosis of patients with vimentin-positive GCs was significantly (p < 0.001) worse than that with vimentin-negative GCs.
Vimentin expression might contribute to the high invasive phenotype of GC, and may be a useful biomarker to determine the biological aggressiveness of GC.
背景/目的：已有研究表明，上皮细胞中的波形蛋白表达与癌细胞的体外恶性表型相关。然而，波形蛋白在癌中的表达的临床意义尚不清楚。本研究旨在阐明波形蛋白阳性胃癌（GC）的意义。
采用针对波形蛋白和癌胚抗原的免疫荧光染色对 265 例 GC 进行检查。当细胞同时对波形蛋白和癌胚抗原染色呈阳性时，GC 被确定为波形蛋白阳性。
265 例 GC 中，共有 86 例（32%）为波形蛋白阳性。波形蛋白阳性 GC 与临床晚期（p<0.001）、大体硬结型（p<0.001）、组织学弥漫型（p<0.001）、淋巴结转移（p=0.008）和淋巴管浸润（p=0.013）之间存在统计学显著相关性。波形蛋白阳性 GC 患者的预后明显（p<0.001）差于波形蛋白阴性 GC 患者。
波形蛋白表达可能有助于 GC 的高侵袭表型，可能是确定 GC 生物学侵袭性的有用生物标志物。
