ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression of PCNA in gastric cancer and its relationship with telomerase activity of peritoneal washings and peritoneal dissemination, and to compare the efficacy of telomerase activity and cytology of peritoneal washings for prediction of peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer. Methods Telomeric repeated amplification protocol (TRAP)-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to measure the telomerase activity of peritoneal washings collected from 60 patients with gastric cancer. Exfoliate cytologic analysis of the corresponding samples was used for comparison.Expression of PCNA was measured with immunohistochemical staining.Their relationship with clinicopathologic features were evaluated. Results The positive rate of telomerase activity in peritoneal washing collected from patients with gastric cancer was 41.7%,which well related to serosal invasion, histology types, depth of infiltration and peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer. The positive rate of telomerase activity increased with the increased depth of infiltration and serosal involvement areas (P