ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinicopathologic characters and prognostic value of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) related proteins Snail and chemokine receptors 4(CXCR4) in gastric cancer.Methods The expressions of Snail and CXCR4 in the gastric tissues of 50 patients with gastric cancer were detected by Immunohistochemistry.The relation between the expressions of Snail and CXCR4 and the clinicopathologic characters were analyzed.The relative relationship between Snail expression and CXCR4 expression were identified by Spearman method.The correlation between the expressions of Snail and CXCR4 with the survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.Results The expression of Snail and CXCR4 expression were positive in 31 of 50 cases (62％) and 29 of 50 cases (58％) respectively.The expression levels of Snail and CXCR4 in the gastric cancer patients with diameter more than 5 cm,worse tissue differentiation,vascular invasion,lymphatic vessel invasion,lymph nodes metastasis,and T3 + T4 staging were significantly higher than those in the patients with diameter less than 5 cm,without vascular invasion,lymphatic vessel invasion,lymph nodes metastasis,and T1 + T2 staging (P ＜ 0.05).The Expression of Snail and CXCR4 was positively Correlated(r =0.330,P =0.014).The co-expression of Snail and CXCR4 was significantly associated with poorer prognosis and was applied as an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer (P =0.001).Conclusions The co-expression of Snail and CXCR4 was the independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer.The combining effect of EMT and CXCR4 may promote the progressions and metastasis of gastric cancer.Therefore,it may be of an effective way for the metastasis of gastric cancer to adjust these targets of the Snail and CXCR4.