ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Slingshot homolog-1 (SSH1) plays an important role in pathological processes, including in the occurrence and development of tumours. The purpose of this study was to determine whether SSH1 is a key biomarker with prognostic value for survival in patients with gastric cancer. METHODS: We performed immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue microarrays containing 100 gastric cancer specimens to evaluate SSH1 protein expression. The association of pathological characteristics with cumulative survival was determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was generated in the multi-factorial survival analysis to identify univariate prognostic factors of GC. RESULTS: SSH1 expression level in gastric cancer tissues was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.032). Additionally, multivariate regression analysis clearly indicated that SSH1 expression was significantly correlated with poor clinical outcomes of patients with gastric cancer (P = 0.016). Multivariate analyses showed that SSH1 was the best predictor of poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer (P = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: SSH1 expression is associated with gastric cancer progression and predicts a poor prognosis. SSH1 may play an important role in the development of gastric cancer, and it is a promising target for prevention and/or treatment of gastric cancer.
