Yonago Acta medica 2009;52:21–25
Clinical Findings on Fibroblast Activation Protein in Patients with Gastric Cancer
Youji Fukumoto, Yoshinori Yamada, Kenji Fukuda, Hiroaki Saito, Shigeru Tatebe, Shunichi Tsujitani and Masahide Ikeguchi
Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago 683-8504 Japan
Human fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a 97-kDa surface glycoprotein expressed in tumor-associated fibroblasts. In this study, we immunohistochemically examined FAP levels in surgically resected gastric carcinomas and explored their association with clini-copathological findings and prognosis. Sections of paraffin-embedded specimens were obtained from 100 patients with advanced gastric cancer between 1989 and 2001 at our institution, and they were stained with an anti-FAP antibody. Expression of FAP was detected in 64 patients (64%). Lymphatic vessel invasion was observed in 90% of FAP-positive patients (P=0.015). Blood vessel invasion was observed in 98% of FAP-positive patients (P < 0.001). The disease-specific 5-year survival rate of in the 64 patients with FAP-positive tumors (22%) was significantly lower than in the 36 patients with FAP-negative tumors (34%, P=0.036). This indicates that vessel invasion is connected with the expression of FAP and that a positive finding of FAP confer a worse prognosis in the patients with gastric cancer.
Key words: fibroblast activation protein; gastric cancer; immunohistochemistry; prognosis
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