Overexpression of protein kinase Cα mRNA may be an independent prognostic marker for gastric carcinoma

Background and Objectives: The variability of the prognosis of gastric carcinoma drives extensive researches for novel prognostic markers. The aims of this study were to correlate the expression of protein kinase C alpha (PKC alpha) mRNA with clinicopathological parameters and to evaluate the significant value of PKC alpha in gastric carcinoma prognosis. Methods: PKC alpha mRNA levels were analyzed in tumor/non-tumor pairs of gastric tissues from surgical specimens of 41 patients with gastric carcinoma employing quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Expression of PKCa in gastric carcinoma was also examined using immunohistochemistry. Results: PKC alpha mRNA expression was significantly upregulated in gastric carcinoma (P=0.007). Overexpression of PKC alpha mRNA was correlated with distant metastasis (P = 0.040). Patients with high PKCa mRNA expression had a significantly poorer overall survival compared with patients with low PKCa mRNA expression (P = 0.0113). The uni-variate Cox regression analysis showed that high PKC alpha. mRNA expression (P = 0.0363) and depth of invasion (P = 0.0443) were two significant prognostic markers for gastric carcinoma. In backward stepwise multivariate analysis, PKC alpha mRNA overexpression was also proved to be an independent prognostic marker for gastric carcinoma (P = 0.0275). Conclusions: Our results suggest that overexpression of PKC alpha mRNA has correlation with distant metastasis and may be an independent prognostic marker for gastric carcinoma.