Prognostic significance of E-cadherin expression and peripheral blood micrometastasis in gastric carcinoma patients

BACKGROUND

The primary objective is to evaluate the prognostic value of E-cadherin (E-cad) expression and peripheral blood micrometastasis (PBMM) in gastric carcinoma. Secondary objective is to study the association between these 2 markers and the clinicopathological features of the patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study took place at Ain Shams University Hospitals. A total of 30 patients with histologically proven gastric adenocarcinoma after curative surgical resection were enrolled in this study. E-cad expression was assessed in tumor tissue samples. Before the start of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, fresh blood samples were collected to detect PBMM as indicated by cytokeratin18 mRNA expression using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR).

RESULTS

Both abnormal E-cad expression and PBMM were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and lymphatic invasion. Moreover, PBMM was significantly associated with poor tissue differentiation and vascular invasion (P < .05). We found strong agreement between E-cad expression and presence of PBMM (P = .001). Both cases with altered E-cad expression and cases with positive PPMM showed shorter relapse-free survival (RFS) (P = .003 and <.001, respectively). Cox regression analysis showed that positive PBMM was independent predictor factor for relapse (hazard ratio [HR] = 6.14; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.06-35.63; P = .04). Cases with positive PBMM showed shorter overall survival (OS) (P = .001).

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, loss of normal E-cad expression in gastric cancer showed a close correlation with the presence of PBMM. PBMM was associated with poor RFS independent of other clinicopathological features. Additionally, detection of PBMM was a significant indicator of OS, and intensive chemotherapy seems to be indicated for these patients.

Prognostic value of immunohistochemical classification of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma into germinal center B-cell and non-germinal center B-cell subtypes

OBJECTIVE

To study the expression of germinal center B-cell (GCB)/activated B-cell like-related proteins to get optimal stratification of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients, and correlate this with the established clinical and laboratory parameters.

METHODS

This study was conducted retrospectively on 30 archival paraffin tissue blocks of DLBCL. All patients were diagnosed between April 2004 and January 2007 at Ain Shams University Hospital and National Cancer Institute, Cairo, Egypt. All patients received anthracycline-based regimens, and none of them received rituximab immunotherapy. Each case included in this study was investigated by immunohistochemical reaction for multiple myeloma-1/interferon regulatory factor-4, B-cell/lymphoma 6, and cluster of differentiation10 monoclonal antibodies.

RESULTS

Patients were classified as GCB group (17 patients) and non-GCB group (13 patients). We found a statistically significant association between non-GCB phenotype and performance status (PS) more than 1, high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, advanced international prognostic index (IPI), and poor patient outcome. Non-GCB phenotype, high LDH level, and PS more than 1 were all associated with increased mortality risk. The median survival time was 46.9 months in group A compared to 19.6 months in group B (hazard ratio[HR]=3.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.52-21.10). Using multivariate Cox regression analysis, non-GCB phenotype was found to be the most predicting factor (HR=6.07; 95% CI=1.6-22.9; p=0.008).

CONCLUSION

The subclassification of DLBCL into GCB and non-GCB groups using immunohistochemistry may be useful for identifying those patients whose prognosis is so poor that more aggressive therapy can be given at the time of diagnosis.