Expression And Significance Of Resistin-like Molecule Beta In Gastric Cancer

Objective: To examine the RELMβ expression in gastric cancer and correlate it withclinicopathological parameters and prognosis.Methods: One hundred and thirty-six gastric cancer patients were evaluated for theRELM β expression by immunohis-tochemistry. The RELM β transcripts weremeasured by real-time quantitative PCR. The patients with gastric carcinoma arefollow-up visited by outpatient、hospital、phone、field visit，etc to get information ofthe patients’ recurrence and metastasis and death data,and calculate postoperativesurvival of patients.Results: In normal gastric mucosa, RELM β expression was absent, whereas areas ofintestinal metaplasia revealed RELM β reactivity. Eighty-nine patients of gastriccancer (65.4%) were positive for RELM β expression. In a subtotal of20patients,RELM β transcripts were positively correlated with protein levels in gastric cancertissues, but absent in normal gastric mucosa. The expression rate of RELM β washigher in intestinal-type carcinomas than in diffuse-type carcinomas (P <0.001).RELM β positivity in gastric cancer was positively correlated with tumordiffer-entiation (P=0.001) and inversely correlated with tumor infiltration (P=0.007), lymph node metastasis (P=0.035), and heparanase expression (P <0.001),without correlation with age, gender, tumor location and size, tumor-node metastasisstages, and Ki-67expression. Patients showing positive RELM β expression had asignificantly longer overall survival than those with negative expression (P=0.001).Conclusion:The RELM β expression in gastric cancer is correlated withclinicopath-ological features and may be a useful prognostic factor for predicting theoutcome of gastric cancer patients.