Clinical value of CagA, c‑Met, PI3K and Beclin‑1 expressed in gastric cancer and their association with prognosis

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common type of malignant tumor worldwide, and causes the second highest number of cancer-associated mortalities in 2012. Gastric tumorigenesis is a multistep and multifactorial process. In the present study, tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry analysis were used to detect cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA), c-Met, phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K) and Beclin-1 expression in 121 GC tumors and 120 normal gastric tissues. The clinical relevance and prognostic implications of CagA, c-Met, PI3K and Beclin-1 expression in GC patients were analyzed. Furthermore, the Cox proportional hazards model was performed to indicate the independent prognostic factors for GC patients, including various clinicopathological parameters and CagA, c-Met, PI3K and Beclin-1 expression. The results indicated that CagA-positive H. pylori infection, c-Met, PI3K and Beclin-1 may have major roles in the oncogenesis, invasion and lymph node metastasis of GC. The disease-free survival rate was negatively associated with the expression of c-Met and CagA in tissues, and was positively associated with Beclin-1 expression. Overall survival was also negatively associated with the expression of c-Met and PI3K, and was positively associated with Beclin-1 expression. This indicated that c-Met and Beclin-1 may be independent and efficient biomarkers for predicting the DFS of patients with GC. Furthermore, in CagA-positive H. pylori infection-associated GC, c-Met expression was significantly upregulated and Beclin-1 expression was significantly downregulated. CagA-positive H. pylori infection therefore associated with the c-Met signaling pathway and the suppression of autophagy in the neoplasia, invasion and metastasis of GC.