Hepatocyte growth factor and Met/HGF receptors in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma.

Overexpression and amplification of Met/HGF receptor has been detected in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. In this study hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and Met/HGF receptors were localized in 32 gastric cancer and adjacent normal gastric tissues by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex technique. HGF (87.5%) and Met/HGF receptors (68.8%) were demonstrated in gastric cancer tissues. A high positive rate of HGF (87.0%) and Met/ HGF receptors (82.6%) presented in intestinal type gastric cancer. HGF immunoreactivity in gastric cancer tissues was a significant and powerful prognostic indicator (relative risk 15.9; p=0.01). These data suggest that HGF and Met/HGF receptors are involved in the morphogenesis of intestinal type gastric cancer. HGF may have other mechanism that favor gastric cancer spread and independently affect survival.