Clinicopathologic significance of expression of nuclear factor-κB RelA and its target gene products in gastric cancer patients

AIM: To assess the prognostic significance of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) and its target genes in gastric cancer. METHODS: The tumor tissues of 115 patients with gastric cancer were immunohistochemically evaluated using monoclonal antibodies against NF-kappa B RelA. Preoperative serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-6 (IL-6) were assessed via enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay. C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA) were measured via immunotrubidimetry. RESULTS: Positive rate of NF-kappa B RelA was 42.6%. NF-kappa B RelA expression in tumor tissues was also related to serum levels of IL-6 (P = 0.044) and CRP (P = 0.010). IL-6, SAA, CRP were related to depth of invasion, VEGF and SAA were correlated with lymph node metastasis. IL-6, VEGF, SAA and CRP were related to the stage. Univariate analysis demonstrated that immunostaining of NF-kappa B RelA, levels of IL-6, VEGF, SAA were significantly related with both disease free survival and overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis verified that NF-kappa B RelA [hazard ratio (HR): 3.40, P = 0.024] and SAA (HR: 3.39, P = 0.045) were independently associated with OS. CONCLUSION: Increased expression of NF-kappa B RelA and high levels of serum SAA were associated with poor OS in gastric cancer patients. (C) 2012 Baishideng. All rights reserved.