Y. Yonemura et al., CORRELATION BETWEEN ALTERED EXPRESSION OF RETINOBLASTOMA PROTEIN AND CLINICAL OUTCOME IN PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC-CANCER, International journal of oncology, 3(1), 1993, pp. 71-75
We studied the expression of RB protein in 136 endoscopically obtained
biopsied materials from primary gastric cancers by means of immunohis
tochemistry. The expression of RB protein was variably observed in the
nuclei of tumor cells. Tumors could be divided into two groups. Group
1 (RB-positive) comprised 74 tumors (54%) that expressed RB protein i
n 20% or more of tumor cells, and Group 2 (altered RB) included 62 tum
ors (46%) that showed RB immunoreactivity in less than 20% of tumor ce
lls. RB-positive tumors (Group 1) were more frequently observed in the
early cancers (74%, 28/38) than in advanced ones (48%, 46/98). The in
cidence of distant metastases was higher and involvement of serosa or
lymph nodes was more frequently observed in Group 2 than in Group 1. I
n addition, patients of Group 1 survived significantly longer than tho
se of Group 2 (p<0.05). However, no correlation could be found between
RB tissue status and proliferative activity. These results indicate t
hat tumors with decreased RB-protein expression may have more aggressi
ve biological behavior than tumors showing high expression of this pro
tein.