Clinicopathological significance of E-cadherin, !-catenin and p53 expression in gastric adenocarinoma

BACKGROUND: E-cadherin/catenin complexes exert a role in cell adhesion. '-catenin is a key player in Wnt signaling pathway in gastric cancer. P53 is a tumor suppressor gene which also regulates apoptosis. We assessed the expression of E-cadherin, '-catenin and p53 in gastric adenocarcinoma, and their correlations with linicopathological features. METHODS: Fifty six formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival specimens of gastric adenocarcinoma were andomly included as cases. Adjacent tumor-free gastric mucosa of different premalignant stages was obtained from the cases. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to assess E-cadherin, '-catenin and p53 expression. RESULTS: All chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia revealed normal membranous staining. Only one patient with dysplasia had abnormal expression of E-cadherin and '-Catenin. Abnormal E-cadherin, '-catenin and p53 expression was found in 50%, 48.2% and 76.8% of cancer specimens respectively. Abnormal expression of E-cadherin was significantly correlated with aberrant '-catenin expression. Abnormal E-cadherin and '-catenin expression were significantly correlated with depth of tumor invasion and advanced gastric cancer (p < 0.05), lower degree of differentiation and diffused tumor type (p < 0.001). Node metastasis was not influenced by abnormal expression of E-cadherin and '-catenin. P53 was not associated with clinicopathological variables.