Early gastric cancer frequently has high expression of KK-LC-1, a cancer-testis antigen

World J Gastroenterol. 2017 Dec 14;23(46):8200-8206. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i46.8200.

Abstract

Aim: To assess cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) expression in gastric cancer patients and examined their associations with clinicopathological factors.

Methods: Eighty-three gastric cancer patients were evaluated in this study. Gastric cancer specimens were evaluated for the gene expression of CTAs, Kitakyushu lung cancer antigen-1 (KK-LC-1), melanoma antigen (MAGE)-A1, MAGE-A3 and New York esophageal cancer-1 (NY-ESO-1), by reverse transcription PCR. Clinicopathological background information, such as gender, age, tumor size, macroscopic type, tumor histology, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion, and pathological stage, was obtained. Statistical comparisons between the expression of each CTA and each clinicopathological background were performed using the χ2 test.

Results: The expression rates of KK-LC-1, MAGE-A1, MAGE-A3, and NY-ESO-1 were 79.5%, 32.5%, 39.8%, and 15.7%, respectively. In early stage gastric cancer specimens, the expression of KK-LC-1 was 79.4%, which is comparable to the 79.6% observed in advanced stage specimens. The expression of KK-LC-1 was not significantly associated with clinicopathological factors, while there were considerable differences in the expression rates of MAGE-A1 and MAGE-A3 with vs without lymphatic invasion (MAGE-A1, 39.3% vs 13.6%, P = 0.034; MAGE-A3, 47.5% vs 18.2%, P = 0.022) and/or vascular invasion (MAGE-A1, 41.5% vs 16.7%, P = 0.028; MAGE-A3, 49.1% vs 23.3%, P = 0.035) and, particularly, MAGE-A3, in patients with early vs advanced stage (36.5% vs 49.0%, P = 0.044), respectively. Patients expressing MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO-1 were older than those not expressing MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO-1 (MAGE-A3, 73.7 ± 7.1 vs 67.4 ± 12.3, P = 0.009; NY-ESO-1, 75.5 ± 7.2 vs 68.8 ± 11.2, P = 0.042).

Conclusion: The KK-LC-1 expression rate was high even in patients with stage I cancer, suggesting that KK-LC-1 is a useful biomarker for early diagnosis of gastric cancer.

Keywords: Cancer-testis antigen; Clinicopathological factor; Early stage; Gastric cancer; Kitakyushu lung cancer antigen-1; Melanoma antigen-A1; Melanoma antigen-A3; New York esophageal cancer-1.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / diagnosis*
  • Adenocarcinoma / immunology
  • Adenocarcinoma / pathology
  • Adenocarcinoma / surgery
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / metabolism*
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism*
  • Early Detection of Cancer / methods*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Lymphatic Metastasis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Prognosis
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Stomach / immunology
  • Stomach / pathology
  • Stomach Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / immunology
  • Stomach Neoplasms / pathology
  • Stomach Neoplasms / surgery

Substances

  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • CT83 protein, human