Clinical and Pathological Value of MACC-1 Expression in Gastric Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Gastric adenocarcinoma is known to be a markedly invasive disease with high potential for metastasis. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/HGF receptor (MET) signaling pathway activation is an assumed mechanism of malignant transformation and metastatic potential of tumors. Metastasis associated with colon cancer-1 (MACC-1) has been identified as a key regulator of HGF/MET signaling. However, its role in gastric cancer is not well understood. Aim of this study is to assess the expression of MACC-1 in gastric cancer, its relation to other clinical and pathologic parameters and its impact on progression free and overall survival. Patient and Methods: Evaluation of MACC-1 protein expression by immune-histochemistry was done on paraf fin-embedded tissues obtained from 46 patients with gastric cancer, where samples were taken from the tumor and adjacent normal mucosa. Results: MACC-1 was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm or membrane of the primary cancer cells. High MACC-1 expression was found in 63.1% (29/46) of tumor samples, while MACC-1 expression was not detected in normal mucosa (P < 0.01). Expression of MACC-1 was significantly associated with older age, larger tumor size, deeper tumor invasion, presence of lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and advanced clinical stage (p < 0.05), while no relation was found with gender, tumor location or histologic classification (p > 0.05). Progression free and overall survival were significantly higher in patients with low MACC-1 expression compared to patients with high expression (Log Rank test, p = 0.02 and 0.04, consequently) . Conclusion: Our study found that MACC-1 expression is strongly related to gastric cancer stage and both progression free and overall survival, suggesting that MACC-1 promote s tumorigenesis and its expression may be