Expression of Glypican 3 is an Independent Prognostic Biomarker in Primary Gastro-Esophageal Adenocarcinoma and Corresponding Serum Exosomes.

Exosomes are nano-sized membranous vesicles of endosomal origin that carry nucleic acids, lipids and proteins. The cargo of exosomes is cell origin specific and the release of these exosomes and uptake by an acceptor cell is seen as a vital element of cell-cell communication. Here, we sought to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of the expression of glypican 3 () on primary gastro-esophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) tissue () and corresponding serum exosomes (). Circulating exosomes were extracted from serum samples of 49 patients with GEA and 56 controls. Extracted exosomes were subjected to flow cytometry for the expression of and expression on primary GEA tissue samples was determined by immunohistochemistry and correlated to clinicopathological parameters. We found decreased levels in GEA patients compared to healthy controls ( < 0.0001) and high expression. This was significantly associated with poor overall survival (high vs. low : 87.40 vs. 60.93 months, = 0.041, high vs. low : 58.03 vs. 84.70 months, = 0.044). Cox regressional analysis confirmed as an independent prognostic biomarker for GEA ( = 0.02) and expression was validated in two independent cohorts. Our findings demonstrate that and can be used as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for GEA.