ABSTRACT
Objective:To analyze the expression of MUC15 and PI3K/Akt in gastric carcinoma and its association with clinicopathologi-cal characteristics and prognosis. Methods:The expression of MUC15 and Akt was detected in 144 cases of gastric carcinoma tissues and corresponding para-carcinoma tissues by tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry. Results:The positive expression rate of MUC15 in gastric carcinoma was 79.8%, higher than that of para-carcinoma tissues (22.2%, P<0.01). The positive expression rate of Akt protein in gastric carcinoma was 80.6%, higher than that of para-carcinoma tissues (16.7%, P<0.01). The expression of MUC15 and Akt was statistically associated with the grades of differentiation, invasion depth, lymphatic metastasis, TNM stage of tumor tissues (P<0.05), and the positive correlation between the two protein expression that appear in the gastric tumor tissue (P=0.001). Univariate survival analysis showed that the over-expression of either MUC15 or Akt was inversely correlated with the survival time (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). Cox multiple regression analysis indicated that patients with over-expression of both MUC15 and Akt had the worst prognoses (HR=3.115, P<0.05). Conclusion:MUC15 may be involved in the occurrence, development, invasion, and metastasis of gastric cancer through the PI3K/Akt cell signaling pathway, and the expression of MUC15 combined with Akt is a powerful predictor for the prognosis of gastric cancer.