Clinical Significance and Expression of Cylin Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27 in Gastric Carcinoma

Kim, Hyun Soo; Sohn, Young Hae; Joo, Young Eun; Choi, Sung Kyu; Rew, Jong Sun; Park, Chang Soo; Kim, Sei Jong

Abstract

The p27 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor that negatively regulates cell proliferation by mediating cell arrest in G1. Reduced expression of p27 has been shown to predict poor survival of patients with breast, colorectal and lung cancers. We studied the expression of p27 in human early and advanced gastric carcinoma by immunohistochemistry to determine whether lack of p27 has implications for aggressiveness of gastric cancer. 120 patients who underwent surgery for gastric cancer from 1996 to 1997 at Chonnam National University Hospital were selected retrospectively for this study. The primary criteria for selection was the availability of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded blocks. Patient characteristics including sex, age at the time of surgery, macroscopic type, histologic type, and stage were all obtained by chart reviews and pathologist and physician contact when necessary. We examined the expression of p27 in human gastric cancer tissue by immunohistochemistry. Among 120 gastric cancer, 55 (45.8%) of the cases were early gastric cancer (EGC), 65 (54.2%) were advanced gastric cancer (AGC). In EGC, expression of p27 did not correlate with the macroscopic type, histologic type, depth of invasion, and stage. In AGC, reduced expression of p27 correlated with advanced stage and depth of invasion (p<0.05). Our results showed that expression of p27 is associated with progression of gastric cancer. Therefore, expression of p27 may help in predicting the agressive behavior of gastric cancer.