Integrin ανβ6 Acts as a Prognostic Indicator in Gastric Carcinoma

Abstract Aims To investigate the relationships between integrin ανβ6 expression and the clinical–pathological features of gastric carcinoma and whether integrin ανβ6 can act as a prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma. Materials and methods We generated the microarray of 300 human gastric carcinoma specimens, and used the method of immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of ανβ6 in them and the relationships between the expression of ανβ6 and the clinical–pathological features of the tumours. Meanwhile, we retrospectively analysed the relationship between ανβ6 expression and the survival times of the patients. Results The expression of ανβ6 was detected in 36.7% of gastric carcinomas, and the expression was associated with Lauren type, differentiation, N stage and TNM stage of the tumours (the P values were 0.004, 0.035, 0.024 and 0.001, respectively). The Kaplan–Meier plot showed that patients who were ανβ6 negative had much longer survival times than those who were ανβ6 positive ( P 0.0001). The survival estimates showed a striking difference in median survival between the negative and positive ανβ6 expression patients, especially in early stage tumours. Univariate analysis indicated that significant factors for prognosis included ανβ6 expression, differentiation, TNM stage, T stage, N stage, M stage and R classification (R0: potentially curative resection; R1: had residual microscopic disease after resection; R2: had residual macroscopic disease after resection), whereas in multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model, only ανβ6 expression, M stage, TNM stage and R classification retained significance for prognosis. Conclusions Positive ανβ6 expression in gastric carcinoma is linked to significantly reduced survival times and, even more important, is that its value as a prognostic marker is significant for early stage tumours.