Integrin ανβ6 acts as a prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma

Aims: To investigate the relationships between integrin alpha nu beta 6 expression and the clinical-pathological features of gastric carcinoma and whether integrin alpha nu beta 6 can act as a prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma. Materials and methods: We generated the microarray of 300 human gastric carcinoma specimens, and used the method of immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of alpha nu beta 6 in them and the relationships between the expression of alpha nu beta 6 and the clinical-pathological features of the tumours. Meanwhile, we retrospectively analysed the relationship between alpha nu beta 6 expression and the survival times of the patients. Results: The expression of alpha nu beta 6 was detected in 36.7% of gastric carcinomas, and the expression was associated with Lauren type, differentiation, N stage and TNM stage of the tumours (the P values were 0.004, 0.035, 0.024 and 0.001, respectively). The Kaplan-Meier plot showed that patients who were alpha nu beta 6 negative had much longer survival times than those who were alpha nu beta 6 positive (P < 0.0001). The survival estimates showed a striking difference in median survival between the negative and positive alpha nu beta 6 expression patients, especially in early stage tumours. Univariate analysis indicated that significant factors for prognosis included alpha nu beta 6 expression, differentiation, TNM stage, T stage, N stage, M stage and R classification (R0: potentially curative resection; R1: had residual microscopic disease after resection; R2: had residual macroscopic disease after resection), whereas in multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model, only alpha nu beta 6 expression, M stage, TNM stage and R classification retained significance for prognosis. Conclusions: Positive alpha nu beta 6 expression in gastric carcinoma is linked to significantly reduced survival times and, even more important, is that its value as a prognostic marker is significant for early stage tumours.