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Soluble E-Cadherin is an Independent Pretherapeutic Factor for Long-Term Survival in Gastric Cancer

Annie On-On Chan, Kent-Man Chu, Shiu-Kum Lam, Benjamin Chun-Yu Wong, Ka-Fai Kwok, Simon Law, Samuel Ko, Wai-Mo Hui, Yui-Hung Yueng, John Wong

From the Departments of Medicine and Surgery, University of Hong Kong Medical Center, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, China.

Address reprint requests to Kent-Man Chu, MD, Division of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong Medical Center, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; email: chukm{at}hku.hk.

Purpose: To evaluate whether pretherapeutic serum soluble E-cadherin is an independent factor predicting long-term survival in gastric cancer. Gastric cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world, but a satisfactory tumor marker is currently unavailable for gastric cancer. Soluble E-cadherin has recently been found to have prognostic value in gastric cancer.

Patients and Methods: One hundred sixteen patients with histologically proven gastric adenocarcinoma were included in the trial. Pretherapeutic serum was collected, and soluble E-cadherin was assayed using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The patients were followed up prospectively at the outpatient clinic.

Results: There were 75 men and 41 women, with a mean (± SD) age of 66 ± 14 years. Forty-eight percent of tumors were located in the gastric antrum. The median survival time was 11 months. The mean pretherapeutic value of soluble E-cadherin was 9,159 ng/mL (range, 6,002 to 10,025 ng/mL), and the mean pretherapeutic level of carcinoembryonic antigen was 11 ng/mL (range, 0.3 to 4,895 ng/mL). On multivariate analysis, soluble E-cadherin is an independent factor predicting long-term survival. Ninety percent of patients with a serum level of E-cadherin greater than 10,000 ng/mL had a survival time of less than 3 years (P = .009).

Conclusion: Soluble E-cadherin is a potentially valuable pretherapeutic prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer.

The work is supported by the University Department of Medicine Grant and the Gastric Cancer Research Fund of the Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong Medical Center, Hong Kong, China.

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