Abstract 489P
Background
Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and even though its incidence has decreased in the Western world, it is still the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death. The reason for poor prognosis relates mainly to late diagnosis and lack of effective treatments for advanced disease. In this study, we performed 48-plex serum panel of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors to further investigate possible serum biomarkers that are known to play a role in many cancers. We aimed to find new prognostic serum biomarkers to facilitate clinical decision making.
Methods
The patient cohort comprised 240 individual patients operated on for histologically verified gastric adenocarcinoma in the Department of Surgery in Helsinki University Hospital between 2000 and 2009. For attaining serum protein concentrations of cytokines and growth factors, we used two Bio-Rad’s premixed Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 27-plex Assay and 21-plex Assay kits.
Results
Among 48 analyzed biomarkers, we found three to be statistically significant (p<0.05) prognostic markers for disease-specific survival using Cox proportional hazards univariate analysis: Stromal derived factor 1 alpha (SDF-1a) (HR 0.39, 95% CI 0.23–0.63, p<0.001), Stem cell factor (SCF) (HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.19–0.77, p=0.007), and Eotaxin (HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.37–0.89, p=0.013). After false discovery rate (FDR) correction, SDF-1a and SCF exhibited p-values of 0.002 and 0.044 respectively with lower concentrations indicating worse survival. In a multivariate analysis together with age, stage, and the histological Laurén classification, SDF-1a and Eotaxin were found to be statistically significant: SDF-1a had a HR of 0.13 (95% CI 0.04–0.49, p=0.002) and Eotaxin had a HR of 0.40 (95% CI 0.19–0.86, p=0.018).
Conclusions
Serum biomarkers SDF-1a, SCF, and Eotaxin can be used to assess the prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Prognostic effect of inflammatory serum biomarkers in gastric cancer might shed new light on to the understanding of the immunological microenvironment of gastric cancer. Further investigation of these findings might yield new possibilities for treatments and help to better aim treatments to specific patient subgroups.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Finska Läkaresällskapet, Sigrid Jusélius stiftelse, Kurt och Doris Palanders Stiftelse, Medicinska understödsföreningen Liv och Hälsa, Waldemar von Frenckells stiftelse.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.