Protein Expression of Osteopontin in Tumor Tissues Is an Independent Prognostic Indicator in Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Objective: Osteopontin has been shown to facilitate the progression and metastasis of malignancies and to be of prognostic value in several human cancers. In gastric cancer, the protein expression of osteopontin has been found to be correlated with tumor invasion and metastasis, but data on its prognostic value are lacking. The aim of this study was to classify the prognostic significance of osteopontin in gastric cancer. Method: In this retrospective study, 306 tumor tissue samples resected from patients with gastric cancer were investigated by staining with a commercial polyclonal antibody against osteopontin. Results: Positive osteopontin expression (>5% of the cancer cell cytoplasm positive) was found in 132 (43.1%) of 306 stained tumors. High osteopontin expression correlated with deep invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and higher TNM stage. Patients with osteopontin-positive expression had poorer overall and disease-free survivals than those with negative expression (p < 0.001 for both). Multivariate analysis revealed osteopontin expression as an independent prognostic indicator of poor disease-free and overall survival in patients with gastric cancer, particularly for survival in TNM stages II (p < 0.05) and III (p < 0.01) patients. Conclusion: Osteopontin protein expression was confirmed as a new independent predictor of tumor recurrence and poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.

Osteopontin, E-cadherin, and β-catenin expression as prognostic biomarkers in patients with radically resected gastric cancer

“…Osteopontin may stimulate several pathological processes in GC-such as chronic inflammation, angiogenesis, cell survival, and tumor invasion and metastases-and may be associated with unfavorable clinicopathological features, including high histological grade, lymphovascular invasion, deep invasion of the gastric wall, and distant metastases [20][21][22]. A significant correlation between osteopontin overexpression and intestinal-type GC emerged from a small series [22], but was excluded by larger data sets [20,21].…”

“…A significant correlation between osteopontin overexpression and intestinal-type GC emerged from a small series [22], but was excluded by larger data sets [20,21]. The functioning of the osteopontin network may be measured through several factors, such as plasma values, tissue messenger RNA levels or protein expression, and promoter polymorphisms [20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Previous retrospective series evaluated osteopontin immunohistochemical expression as predictor of prognosis in patients treated with surgery with discordant results [20][21][22]. Higashiyama et al [21] explored the prognostic role of osteopontin expression in the largest ever reported retrospective series of 295 patients with curatively resected GC-failing to show a significant association on multivariate analysis.…”

“…Histological features were well to moderately differentiated (G1/G2) in 103 patients (30 %) and poorly differentiated (G3) in 243 patients (70 %). The median number of lymph nodes retrieved was 26 (interquartile range, IQR, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], and the median number of positive nodes was 5 (IQR, 2-12).…”

Expression of osteopontin and CDX2: Indications of phenotypes and prognosis in advanced gastric cancer

“…It has been widely reported to demonstrate altered expression in relation to tumorigenesis, invasion, metastasis and its expression may have prognostic potential in colon (7), lung (8), prostate (9), and breast cancers (10). Overexpression correlated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer has also been reported (11,12).…”