ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between the expressions of osteopontin (OPN), matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in gastric cancer and the poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Methods A total of 35 patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy from January 2014 to March 2015 in Dalian Third People ' s Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The expressions of OPN, MMP-2 and VEGF in gastric cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues were detected by immunohistochemical SP staining. The relationship between the expressions of OPN, MMP-2 and VEGF and the poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients was analyzed. Results The positive expression rates of OPN, MMP-2 and VEGF in postoperative pathological tissues of gastric cancer were 80.0％ (28/35), 77.1％(27/31) and 88.6％(31/35), respectively. OPN expression was associated with vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, degree of differentiation, degree of invasion, and Lauren classification (all P< 0.05). MMP-2 expression was associated with vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, and degree of invasion (all P<0.05). VEGF expression was associated with vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, degree of invasion, and Lauren classification (all P< 0.05). OPN, VEGF and MMP-2 had synergistic effects in the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer, and the expressions of them were positively correlated (all P< 0.05). The sensitivity of combined detection of OPN, VEGF and MMP-2 (87.5％) was higher than the sensitivity of individual detection (68.8％, 62.5％ and 56.3％) (P< 0.05). Conclusions OPN, MMP-2 and VEGF expressions are closely related to the poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients, and have synergistic effects in the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer. The combined detection of OPN, MMP-2 and VEGF may have a more accurate prediction of the prognosis of gastric cancer.