Clinicopathological significance of LRP16 protein in 336 gastric carcinoma patients.

AIM To investigate the expression of leukemia related protein 16 (LRP16), and the possible relationship between LRP16 expression and clinicopathological indices in 336 gastric carcinoma patients. METHODS Immunohistochemistry was used to detect LRP16 expression in 336 cases of paraffin-embedded gastric carcinoma tissues and 60 cases of distal normal mucosa. The relationships between LRP16 expression and patients' age, tumor size, histological grade, clinical stage, metastatic status and prognosis were analysed. RESULTS The expression of LRP16 was 58.6% (197/336) in gastric carcinoma and 31.7% (19/60) in distal normal gastric mucosa. The expression of LRP16 in carcinoma was significantly higher than that in normal mucosa tissues (chi(2) = 14.929, P = 0.001). LRP16 protein expression was found in 44.1% (63/143) carcinomas at stage I and II, and 69.4% (134/193) carcinomas at stage III and IV (chi(2) = 21.804, P = 0.001), and in 56.9% (182/320) of cancers without metastasis but 93.8% (15/16) of those with metastasis (chi(2) = 8.543, P = 0.003). The expression of LRP16 was correlated with tumor size, infiltrative depth, clinical stage, lymphatic invasion and distant metastasis (all P < 0.05). Follow-up data showed that there was a significant difference in median survival time between cancer patients with expression of LRP16 (27.0 mo) and those without (48.0 mo, Log rank =31.644, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION The expression of LRP16 may be associated with invasion, metastasis and prognosis of gastric cancer.