Overexpression Of FAM3C Protein As A Novel Biomarker For Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition And Poor Outcome In Gastric Cance

Objective In recent years,overexpression of FAM3 C protein has been proved to contribute to epithelial to mesenchymal transition(EMT)and correlate with poor prognosis in several malignant tumors.However,the role of FAM3 C in gastric cancer(GC)is still not clear.Thus,we detected the expression of FAM3 C by immunohistochemistry(IHC)and determined the association of FAM3 C expression with EMT,clinicopathologic characteristics,and prognosis in GC.Methods We detected the expression of FAM3 C,PDGFR-β,E-cadherin,and vimentin in150 patients with GC by tissue chip technology and IHC methods.All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 22.0 software.Results FAM3 C expression in gastric carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than in matched adjacent normal tissues(P = 0.037).The expression of FAM3 C positively correlated with vimentin expression and negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression(P = 0.045 and 0.029,respectively).However,there was no correlation between expression of FAM3 C and PDGFR-β(P = 0.095).FAM3 C overexpression was significantly associated with depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis and TNM stage(P = 0.004,0.016 and 0.022,respectively).Multivariate analysis revealed that high expression of FAM3 C is an independent prognostic factor for poor prognosis in GC patients(P = 0.007).Conclusions Overexpression of FAM3 C is a potential marker for EMT and predicts poor outcome in gastric cancer.