Article Text
Abstract
Aims Although expressed in tumour cells of various malignancies, cadherin 5 (CDH5), also known as vascular endothelial cadherin, plays an important role in homotypic cell–cell adhesion among epithelial cells. However, the clinical significance of CDH5 expression in gastric cancer has not been sufficiently demonstrated. In this study, CDH5 expression in gastric cancer was evaluated and the correlations between CDH5 expression and the clinicopathological features and outcomes of the disease were examined.
Methods Differentiated-type gastric adenocarcinomas obtained from 102 patients who underwent gastrectomy were analysed. CDH5 expression was assessed by immunohistochemical staining of the membranes of the cancer cells.
Results High CDH5 expression was significantly associated with the following clinicopathological variables related to tumour progression: depth of invasion (p=0.012), venous invasion (p=0.013), lymphatic invasion (p=0.001), metastatic lymph nodes (p=0.009), pathological stage (p=0.008) and distant metastasis or recurrent disease (p=0.009). Patients with high CDH5 expression had significantly poorer disease-specific survival (p=0.021), although CDH5 was not determined to be an independent prognostic factor by multivariate analysis.
Conclusions CDH5 may play a key role in the progression or metastasis of differentiated-type gastric cancer and serve as a target for its treatment.
- GASTRIC CANCER
- GASTRIC PATHOLOGY
- IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY
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Footnotes
Handling editor Cheok Soon Lee
Contributors KH and MI were responsible for drafting the manuscript. KH and YT contributed to the immunohistochemistry analysis. KH, MI, TI and HU contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data. SO, KK, HU and TK contributed in conducting the study. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.