Reduced Expression of nm23 Protein is Related to Nodal Metastasis of Human Gastric Carcinoma

= Abstract = Reduced expression of nm23 gene or protein has been known to be related with nodal metastasis in a variety of malignant tumors of the breast, lung, liwr, prostate, ovary and stomach. To elucidate a possible prognostic factor, we studied 42 cases of gastric adenocarcinomas for the expression of nm23 protein using immunohistochemical methods and compared with the known prognostic parameters. The nm23 protein was intensely stained in the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus of carcinoma cells in 9 cases(21.4%). The nm23 protein expression of the non-metastatic group(46.7%) was higher than that of the nodal metastasis group(7. 4%). Perigastric lymph node metastases(p(0.001) were more frequently found in the nm23 protein negatiw group(75.8%) than in the nm23 positive group(22.2%). There was no significant correlation between nm23 protein expression and other parameters such as patient age, sex, WHO grade, Lauren classification, depth of invasion, location of tumor and size. The results suggest that nm23 protein expression plays a role in suppression of nodal metastasis in the gastric adenocarcinoma.