PROGRESSION IN GASTRIC-CARCINOMA RELATIVE TO THE RATIO OF CD44 EPITHELIAL VARIANT TRANSCRIPT TO CD44 HEMATOPOIETIC VARIANT TRANSCRIPT

BACKGROUND. It has been suggested that CD44 splice variants play a rol e in the progression of certain epithelial cancers and non-Hodgkin's l ymphoma. In this study, we investigated the epithelial variant/hematop oietic variant (E/H) ratio (the amount of the CD44 epithelial variant transcript relative to the CD44 hematopoietic variant transcript) in h uman gastric carcinoma compared with normal gastric mucosa. METHODS. T he ratio was determined for tumors and adjacent noncancerous mucosa fr om 30 gastric carcinoma patients using reverse transcription-polymeras e chain reaction and Southern blotting. We also determined the tumor ( T)E/H noncancerous mucosa (N)E/H (the difference between E/H ratios of tumor tissue and adjacent noncancerous mucosa) and examined these mea surements for correlations with the pathologic features of gastric car cinoma, as well as for their usefulness as an indicator of tumor progr ession. RESULTS. The E/H ratio in tumor tissue was significantly highe r than in adjacent noncancerous mucosa (P < 0.01). The TE/H - NE/H in patients with lymph node metastases was 0.16 +/- 0.11, compared with 0 .07 +/- 0.08 in cases without lymph node metastases (P < 0.05). Signif icant correlations also were observed between the TE/H - NE/H and the depth of invasion, blood vessel invasion, and lymphatic vessel invasio n (P < 0.03, P < 0.03, and P < 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSIONS. Our r esults suggest that increases in the E/H ratio may be a useful indicat or of progression in gastric carcinoma. (C) 1996 American Cancer Socie ty.