Serum human hepatocyte growth factor (hHGF) is elevated in patients with metastatic gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a stromally derived prot ein growth factor that modulates epithelial. cell proliferation and motilit y. HGF may therefore be involved in tumor progression. METHODOLOGY: We measured the immunoreactive(ir)-HGF concentration in the se ra of 56 patients with human gastric carcinoma, using an enzyme-linked immu nosorbent assay and evaluated its association with clinical and histopathol ogic factors. Clinical stages were classified in accordance with The Genera l Rules for TNM Classification (International Union Against Cancer). RESULTS: The serum hHGF concentrations from patients with gastric carcinoma significantly increased with increasing pathologic tumor grades. Also, the re were significantly higher concentrations in patients with nodal metastas is compared to patients without metastasis. The serum hHGF concentrations i n patients with liver metastasis were significantly higher than in patients without liver metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that the serum hHGF concentration is elevated in gastric carcinoma patients with liver and nodal metastasis. In multivari ate analysis, the serum hHGF concentration was found to be the most importa nt independent factor in predicting overall survival. Thus, the current res ults suggest that HGF may be important in the progression and metastasis of gastric carcinoma.