The Gastric Motor Function in Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer and Circular Muscle

Lee, Sang In; Park, Hyo Jin; Kim, Jung Hwan; Choi, Seung Ho; Kim, Tae Il; Cho, Joon Sik; Park, In Suh

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastric motor function in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) may dependent upon the extent, depth of invasion, and/or location of cancer. The network of interstitial cell of Cajal (ICC) acts as a pacemaker cell to produce the slow wave, and tyrosine kinase receptor, c-kit plays an important role in development and function of the ICC. We investigated the gastric motor function in patients with advanced gastric cancer, and examined the density of c-kit+ cells in circular muscle layer of the stomach to investigate a possible correlation between gastric motor function and the density of c-kit.
METHODS
The subjects include 25 patients operated for non-obstructive AGC. Preoperative electrogastrography (EGG) and gastric emptying (GE) scan were performed in all patients. The frozen samples of circular muscle without cancer infiltration in midantrum and midbody, greater curvature were prepared from resected tissue and immunohistochemistry for c-kit was performed. The density of c-kit was quantitatively analyzed.
RESULTS
Several GE parameters including T(1/2) were deranged in patients with AGC, especially antral lesion. There was no significant difference in GE parameters or frequency of slow wave between antrum and body in AGC. The density of c-kit in antrum was greater trend than that in body. No correlation was found among the density of c-kit, T(1/2) and the slow wave frequency.
CONCLUSIONS
We observed a delayed gastric emptying in patients with advanced gastric cancer, especially antral lesion without any abnormalities in myoelectrical activity. No correlation was found among T(1/2), slow wave frequency and c-kit density in patients with advanced gastric cancer.