Expression of SATB1 and HER2 in gastric cancer and its clinical significance.

OBJECTIVE To detect expression of HER2 and SATB1 in paraffin tissues of gastric cancer, and to investigate their relationship with clinic pathological factors and prognosis, and further analyze the correlation between the expression of SATB1 and HER2. PATIENTS AND METHODS RT-PCR was used to determine the expression of SATB1 gene and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression of HER2 protein in gastric cancer tissues. The relationships of both were evaluated with clinic pathological parameters and prognosis, and further analyzed to build a correlation between the expression of SATB1 and HER2. RESULTS (1) The expression level of SATB1 gene in gastric cancer tissue was related with TNM stage and distant metastasis. (2) Patients with a lower expression of SATB1 had a higher median overall survival than those with a higher expression of SATB1 (p <0.01). (3) The positive expression of HER2 in gastric cancer tissues was associated with distant metastasis (p <0.01). (4) The expression of SATB1 gene was correlated positively with HER2 protein in gastric cancer (r=0.386, p =0.002). CONCLUSIONS High expression of SATB1 gene predicts advanced TNM stage and possible distant metastasis in patients with GC, which was a sign of poor prognosis. The expression of SATB1 was positively correlated with HER2, indicating that SATB1 and HER2 might be in a positive regulation relationship.