RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is reported to be one of the leading causes of mortality in Korea. Our aim was to evaluate the clinicopathologic usefulness of cyclin E, p53, E-cadherin and beta-catenin expressions in gastric adenocarcinomas. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining was performed on the 40 early gastric carcinoma (EGC) cases and 69 advanced gastric carcinoma (AGC) cases to examine the relationship with the clinicopathologic parameters. RESULTS: Cyclin E and p53 expressions were significantly lower in the mucosal or submucosal invasion group compared with those in the muscle invasion and subserosal or serosal invasion groups. Cyclin E expression was significantly higher in the node-positive group compared with that in the node-negative group. The loss of beta-catenin expression was significantly higher in the node-negative group. p53 expression was significantly higher in the intestinal type group than that in the diffuse type group. Loss of E-cadherin expression was significantly higher in the diffuse type group. Cyclin E expression correlates with p53 expression. CONCLUSIONS: The depth of invasion seems to correlate with cyclin E and p53 expressions. Lymph node metastasis may correlate with loss of beta-catenin expression.