Detection of vimentin methylation in the serum of patients with gastric cancer.

AIM: Detection of gastric cancer using serum assay of vimentin methylation. METHODS: A quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction assay was used to detect vimentin gene (VIM) methylation in the serum of 71 patients with gastric cancer. RESULTS: Mean VIM methylation in cancer patients (0.304 ± 0.558) was significantly higher than that in healthy donors (0.011 ± 0.015, p=0.018). The sensitivity of VIM methylation (33.8%) was similar to the one of carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) (25.4%), higher than the one of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (12.7%), and significantly higher than the sensitivity of both markers for patients with stage I and IV disease (p=0.010 and 0.044, respectively). At all stages, the sensitivity of a combination of markers was higher than the sensitivity of any in isolation marker and was similar for stages I, II and III, reaching 76.9% for stage IV disease. CONCLUSION: VIM methylation may represent a useful marker for the detection of tumor DNA in the serum of patients with gastric cancer.

[Significance of Onodera's prognostic nutritional index for treating unresectable or recurrent colorectal cancer with chemotherapy].

We analyzed the relationship between Onodera's prognostic nutritional index(PNI), classified by serum albumin level, lymphocyte level, and clinicopathological features, in 46 patients with unresectable or recurrent colorectal cancer being treated with chemotherapy.Onodera 's PNI was distributed between 29.7 and 56.1(average 45.4±6.8 ).Onodera 's PNI showed a significant correlation with performance status and surgery before chemotherapy(p=0.002 and 0.002, respectively).Next, all patients were divided into two groups according to their Onodera's PNI values, based on the receiver operator characteristic curve.We found that Onodera's PNI showed a significant correlation with overall survival times(median survival time, 548 days(Onodera's PNI<47.8 ), 902 days(Onodera's PNI≥47.8 ), p=0.00065 ).This PNI could be a prognostic factor and a very useful objective screening tool for assessing the nutritional condition of those with unresectable or recurrent colorectal cancer being treated with chemotherapy.