PREDICTIVE VALUE OF C-ERBB-2 AND DNA PLOIDY PATTERNS IN GASTRIC-CARCINOMA RECURRENCE

This study was conducted to see whether the accuracy in predicting liv er metastases in gastric cancer patients increased when DNA aneuploidy and c-erbB-2 gene products were analyzed besides other clinicopatholo gic features. Aneuploidy was observed in 32 out of 74 tumors (43%); th ese included 62% of those tumors in patients with liver metastases, 43 % of those with peritoneal dissemination and 26% of those in the 5-yea r survival group. Aneuploidy was positively correlated with the progno sis and degree of blood vessel invasion but not with lymph node metast ases or lymphatic permeation. Positive staining for the c-erbB-2 gene product was detected in 19 out of 89 tumors (21%). This staining was n ot related to any of the clinicopathologic features examined. Multivar iate analysis revealed that the degree of blood vessel invasion was th e factor that most strongly correlated with liver metastases. The prog nostic value of aneuploidy was significant (p < 0.05) but much smaller than that of blood vessel invasion (p < 0.0001), interstitial tissue reaction (p = 0.02), Borrmann type classification (p=0.03). Analyses o f DNA aneuploidy and c-erbB-2 gene expression in the primary tumor of gastric carcinoma to improve the accuracy of predicting liver metastas is seem to be of limited clinical value at present.