Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18000 Niš, Serbia.
Center for Pathology, Clinical Center Niš, 18000 Niš, Serbia.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 Jun 23;55(6):300. doi: 10.3390/medicina55060300.
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the deadliest malignancies, with the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms still not completely understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) moleculeconnection with the pathological features of GCs, and the expression of cell adhesive molecules (E-cadherin and β-catenin) and angiogenesis-related factors (vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), HIF1α, and CD31)). This study comprised 136 cases of GCs with data related to the patients' demographic characteristics (age, gender) and pathological features (tumor location, gross type, Laurens' type of GC, histological differentiation, invasion depth, lymphovascular invasion and the presence of metastases) which were correlated with STAT3 expression. Additionally, STAT3 expression and the expression of adhesive molecules and angiogenesis-related factors were studied by immunohistochemical methods. The expression of STAT3 was found to be significantly associated with the occurrence of poorly differentiated GCs in the lower portion of the stomach and with the presence of distant metastases. Interestingly, none of the investigated parameters related to cell adhesion or to angiogenesis were found to be related to the expression of STAT3. The lack of significant differences between the studied STAT3 expression and some of the molecules associated with different cancer features might be due to the characteristics of the studied population sample associated with the origin, heterogeneity, and cancer pathophysiological background. Nonetheless, the results of our study suggest that STAT3 could be a useful marker for the presence of distant GC metastases, which further indicates that STAT3 action might involve some other signaling molecules/pathways that warrant further elucidation.
胃癌（GC）是最致命的恶性肿瘤之一，其潜在的病理生理机制仍不完全清楚。在这项研究中，我们旨在研究信号转导和转录激活因子 3（STAT3）分子与 GC 的病理特征之间的关系，以及细胞黏附分子（E-钙黏蛋白和β-连环蛋白）和血管生成相关因子（血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）、HIF1α和 CD31）的表达。本研究包括 136 例 GC 病例，这些病例的数据与患者的人口统计学特征（年龄、性别）和病理特征（肿瘤位置、大体类型、GC 的Laurens 类型、组织学分化、浸润深度、血管淋巴管浸润和转移的存在）相关，这些特征与 STAT3 的表达相关。此外，通过免疫组织化学方法研究了 STAT3 的表达以及黏附分子和血管生成相关因子的表达。STAT3 的表达与胃下部低分化 GC 的发生以及远处转移的存在显著相关。有趣的是，没有发现研究的细胞黏附和血管生成相关的任何参数与 STAT3 的表达相关。研究的 STAT3 表达与一些与不同癌症特征相关的分子之间缺乏显著差异可能是由于研究人群样本的特征与起源、异质性和癌症病理生理背景有关。尽管如此，我们的研究结果表明 STAT3 可能是远处 GC 转移存在的有用标志物，这进一步表明 STAT3 可能涉及其他一些信号分子/途径，需要进一步阐明。
