Correlation Between The Transcription Factor FOXC2 And The Development Of Gastric Cancer

OBJECTIVE In recent years,several reports indicate that FOXC2 plays a key role in progression of tumors and in promoting invasion and metastasis.This study aimed to investigate the relationship between FOXC2 and gastric cancer tissues and clinicopathological features,such as pathological type,degree of tissue differentiation,lymphnode invasion,metastasis,age,gender.And the prognostic and predictive values of FOXC2 in gastric cancer will be investigated as well as the attempts to target the gene FOXC2 for therapeutic purposesMETHODS A total of 269 patients who underwent Narrow spectrum imaging endoscopy participated in this study,25 with normal gastric mucosa,89 with lntraepithelial neoplasia(49 with lower grade intraepithelial neoplasia and 40 with higher grade intraepithelial neoplasia),20 with early gastric carcinomas,and 135 with advanced gastric carcinomas before surgical resection.All specimens were pathologically confirmed.The expression of FOXC2 of specimens were measured by hematoxylin-eosin staining.Statistical analysis was performed.P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTS In all cases,FOXC2 protein was detected primarily in the cytoplasm The staining intensity is as follows,normal gastric mucosa displayed minimal FOXC2 expression while intraepithelial neoplasia,early gastric carcinomas and advanced gastric carcinomas tissue,stained in parallel,displayed progressively increased FOXC2 expression.The positive rate of four groups is respectively 20,00%?51.69%?85.00%?97.78%,with a significant difference between each group(X2=102.737,P<0.05)Comparison between two groups:the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between normal gastric mucosa group and intraepithelial neoplasia group(X2=7.926,P<0.05);the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between normal gastric mucosa group and early gastric carcinomas group(X2=18.787,P<0.05);the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between normal gastric mucosa group and advanced gastric carcinomas group(X2=103.671,P<0.05);the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between intraepithelial neoplasia group and early gastric carcinomas group(X2=7.430,P<0.05);the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between intraepithelial neoplasia group and advanced gastric carcinomas group(X2=69.832,P<0.05);the expression of FOXC2 was significantly different between early gastric carcinomas group and advanced gastric carcinomas group(X2=7.643,P<0.05).The positive expression rate(40.82%)of lower grade intraepithelial neoplasia is lower than higher grade intraepithelial neoplasia(65.00%)(X2=5.158,P<0.05).2.The relationship between FOXC2 expression and clinicalpathological features:the positive expression rate between older and younger patients was significantly different(P<0.05);the positive expression rate in tumor size;there was a significant difference between the positive expression rates in the histological grades(P<0.05);the positive expression rates in the presence or absence of lymph node metastasis was significantly different(P<0.05);the positive expression rate between male and female was not significantly different(P>0.05)CONCLUSION 1.The positive expression rate of FOXC2 increased gradually from normal gastric mucosa to low grade intraepithelial neoplasia,high grade intraepithelial neoplasia,early gastric cancer,and gastric cancer,suggesting that FOXC2 is involved in the occurrence and development of gastric cancer.2.The positive expression of FOXC2 was related to age,cancer size,histological grade,and lymph node metastasis,suggesting that FOXC2 is involved in the metastasis of gastric cancer.3.The positive expression of FOXC2 has nothing to do with gender and lymph node invasion of patients.