ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression features of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), glutathione S transferase-pi (GST-pi) and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins like p53, survivin and bcl-2 in lymph node metastases of gastrointestinal carcinomas.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of P-gp, GST-pi, p53, survivin and bcl-2 were determined by using immunohistochemistry technique in surgical specimens of primary tumor (PT) and lymph node metastases (LNMs) from 54 gastrointestinal cancer patients with metastasis of lymph nodes. The expression difference of 5 multi-drug resistance (MDR)-related factors between LNMs and PT were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Significant difference was found in the expression of P-gp and GST-pi between the two groups (both P < 0.05), and expression of p53 and bcl-2 showed positive correlation between LNMs and PT (r = 0.7248, 0.5524; both P < 0.05), respectively. In LNMs, P-gp expression was positively correlated with GST-pi (r = 0.4062, P < 0.05) and survivin (r = 0.6169, P < 0.05), and also GST-pi expression was related positively with survivin (r = 0.4027, P < 0.05). Statistically positive correlations were noted between bcl-2 and P-gp (r = 0.3986, P < 0.05), bcl-2 and survivin (r = 0.2937, P < 0.05), as well as GST-pi and survivin (r = 0.4481, P < 0.01) in PT. Only a positive correlation between GST-pi and survivin expression was simultaneously shown in both LNMs and PT.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>There is significant heterogeneity of MDR-related factors expression in LNMs of gastrointestinal carcinomas. Effective adjuvant chemotherapy after operation should target on the metastatic loci of the disease.</p>