The Study Is About The Relation Between C-myc Expression And Clinical Pathological Progression Of Gastric Cancer

Objective : To study the relationship of c-myc oncogene expression with major pathological characteristics of gastric cancer (GC).Methods: Eighty-one GC specimens were studied for c-myc oncogene amplification using non-radioactive in situ hybridization method. The c-myc overexpression status was correlated with tumor differentiation, tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis.Result: Among the 81 pathology confirmed GC patients, 55 (67.9%) were found to have c-myc overexpression in cancer tissues. The rates of c-myc overexpression were 72.7% (24/33) in intestinal type GC and 64.6% (31/48) in diffuse type GC (P>0.05); 74.3% (36/35) in well differentiated tumor and 63.0% (29/46) in poorly differentiated tumor (P>0.05); 81.8% (9/11) in tumors limited to superficial muscles and 65.7% (46/70) in tumors invading into deep muscle and beyond (P>0.05); and 66.7% (38/57) in tumors with lymphnode metastases and 70.8% (17/24) in tumors without lymph node metastases (P>0.05).Conclusion: The results suggested that c-myc overexpression was very common in GC and such expression was not related to GC pathological progression. The percentage of c-myc overexpression was not significantly different between poorly differentiated GC and well differentiated GC, between tumors invading beyond deep muscle and those limited to superficial muscle, and between tumors with lymph node metastases than those without lymph node metastases. These results are in line with previous findings suggesting that c-myc overexpression had little influence on the histological features [10,14] As c-myc may play an important role to predict more rapid growth characteristics and more aggressive biological behavior of gastric cancer, this molecule could be used as a valuable marker for GC proliferation.