Clinicopathological importance of Ki-67, p27, and p53 expression in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIM: To assess the prognostic value of Ki-67, p27, and p53 immunoreactivity in human gastric cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 84 patients with gastric cancer participated in our study. We categorized tumors as intestinal and diffuse types, with reference to Lauren's classification. Ki-67, p27, and p53 immunoreactivity were correlated with patient's age, tumor type, grade, lymph node status, extent of invasion, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and survival.

RESULTS

Decreased expression of p27 (<20% positivity of cells) and increased p53 staining (>50% positivity of cells) were determined in 41 (48.8%) and 29 (36.9%) tumor specimens, respectively, and were connected with both the TNM stage (P = 0.007 and P = 0.039, respectively), and the extent of tumor invasion (P = 0.025 and P = 0.004, respectively). Kaplan-Meier methods showed a remarkable effect of reduced p27 expression on survival time (P = 0.003). In contrast, we observed no notable relationship between survival time and p53 or Ki-67 immunoreactivity (P = 0.372 and P = 0.401, respectively).

CONCLUSION

A decrease in p27 expression and overexpression of p53 or Ki-67 may cause advancing and metastatic illness in patients with gastric carcinoma. In addition, immunopathological identification of p27 may be helpful to define patients with gastric cancer who are at an increased risk of death.