The expression of interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2 in gastric cancer tissue and prognostic significance

Objective To discuss the expression of interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2 (IFIT2) in gastric cancer tissue, and to analyze the correlation of expression level of IFIT2 and clinical features and prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Methods Immunohistochemical staining method was used to detect the expression of IFIT2 in 90 cases of gastric cancer tissue and corresponding normal adjacent tissues in tissue chip. The rank sum test was used to compare the difference in the expression level of IFIT2 in gastric cancer tissue and corresponding normal adjacent tissue, and chi-square test was used to analyze the correlation of expression level of IFIT2 and clinical features. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the correlation of expression level of IFIT2 and overall survival, and Cox model was fitted to estimate the correlation of different indexes and prognosis. Results The high expression rate of IFIT2 in gastric cancer tissue (77.4%) was significantly higher than that in normal adjacent tissue (95.20%, χ2=11.334, P=0.001). The high expression rate of IFIT2 in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ (72.00%, 36/50) was significantly lower than that in stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ (90.91%, 30/33; χ2=4.364, P=0.037). Patients with higher expression level of IFIT2 had longer OS than that with lower expression level with the difference being statistically significant (χ2=10.990, P=0.001). The Cox regression model indicated that distant metastasis [hazard ratio(HR)=2.693, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.164-6.232, P=0.021], and IFIT2 high expression (HR=0.350, 95%CI: 0.169-0.727, P=0.005) were independent prognostic factors of gastric cancer. Conclusion IFIT2 had important effect in initiation and development of gastric cancer, and could serve as an important risk factor to predcit gastric cancer prognosis. Key words: Gastric cancer; Interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2; Prognosis