Expression And Clinical Significance Of SOAT1 In Gastric Cancer

OBJECTIVE: SOAT1 is a key enzyme in cholesterol metabolism.It is overexpressed in a variety of tumors and participates in tumorigenesis and metastasis.Studies have shown that the high expression of SOAT1 is closely related to the poor prognosis of primary liver cancer,thyroid carcinoma,renal cell carcinoma and prostate cancer,but the expression and clinical significance of SOAT1 in gastric cancer are not very clear.The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expression of SOAT1 and clinicopathological features and prognosis in gastric cancer.METHODS: The postoperative paraffin specimens of gastric cancer who underwent surgery in the first affiliated Hospital of Nanhua University from December 2010 to December 2013 were collected and included in this study.The expression of SOAT1 protein in paraffin-embedded specimens of gastric cancer was detected by IHC,and the correlation between the expression of SOAT1 protein and clinicopathological features(age,sex,tumor size,tissue type,degree ofdifferentiation,depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis,distant metastasis,TNM stage)and prognosis were analyzed.RESULTS: In 118 cases of human gastric cancer tissue sections,the positive expression of SOAT1 was found in 52 cases(44.07%).Correlation analysis showed that the expression level of SOAT1 was significantly correlated with tumor lymph node metastasis(P = 0.022),but not with age,sex,tumor size,tissue type,degree of differentiation,depth of invasion,distant metastasis and TNM stage(P > 0.05).Analysis of the follow-up data of 118 gastric cancer patients showed that the five-year survival rate of SOAT1 positive expression group was 31.1%,and that of negative expression group was 61.7%.The survival rate of negative expression group was significantly higher than that of positive expression group(P = 0.001).The positive expression of SOAT1 was closely related to the poor prognosis of patients.Multivariate analysis showed that the expression level of SOAT1 was an independent factor affecting the prognosis of patients.Conculusion: SOAT1 is positively expressed in some gastric cancer tissues.The expression of SOAT1 is correlated with lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer patients,suggesting that SOAT1 may be related to the progression and invasion of gastric cancer;the positive expression of SOAT1 is related to the poor prognosis of patients.