Sialyl-Tn antigen as a useful predictor of poor prognosis in patients with advanced stomach cancer.

Sialyl-Tn antigen (STn) expression was studied immunohistochemically in 211 primary advanced gastric carcinomas. The overall rate of positive STn staining was 17% (35/211), and positive STn staining was found not to be correlated with tumor size, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, liver metastasis, or peritoneal metastasis. However, patients with tumors that were immunoreactive for STn demonstrated significantly lower survival (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that STn staining was an independent prognostic factor. From these findings we conclude that careful followup and intense postoperative therapy are required for patients with advanced gastric cancer who have positive immunoreactivity for STn.