High FAK combined with low JWA expression: clinical prognostic and predictive role for adjuvant fluorouracil–leucovorin–oxaliplatin treatment in resectable gastric cancer patients

Background The multifunctional protein JWA was previously identified as a novel regulator of focal adhesion kinase (FAK/PTK2) in suppressing cancer cell adhesion, invasion and metastasis. JWA is downregulated in gastric cancer (GC) and a prognostic and predictive biomarker for resectable GC. However, the value of FAK combined with JWA for GC patients as a biomarker has not been studied. Here we evaluated the roles of FAK alone and combined with JWA in GC patients treated with surgery alone or combined with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy. Methods Two tissue microarrays were constructed of specimens from resected GC ( n = 709 in total) for detection of FAK and JWA expression by immunohistochemistry. Correlations between both proteins and clinicopathological features as well as prognostic and predictive values were evaluated. Results Compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues, FAK protein levels were remarkably up-regulated in GC lesions ( P