Expression of altered retinoblastoma protein inversely correlates with tumor invasion in gastric carcinoma

AIM： To investigate the clinical and pathological significance of altered retinoblastoma （Rb） encoding protein （pRb） in gastric carcinoma. METHODS： Expression of altered pRb was analyzed in 91 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS： Sixty-five percent （59/91） of the tumors were positively stained and the staining in tumor nuclei of gastric carcinoma ranged 0%-90%. Moreover, strong expression of altered pRb was found in 35% （6/17）, 24% （5/21）, 17% （8/46） and 0% （0/7） of T1, T2, T3 and T4 gastric carcinomas, respectively. Altered pRb expression was inversely correlated with the depth of tumor invasion （P = 0.047）. Degree of immunoreactivity had no significant correlation with tumor grade, node metastasis and distant metastasis. In terms of prognostic significance, univariate analysis showed that poor differentiation [41 （66.1%） vs 34 （42.5%） P = 0.051], advanced tumor stage （P 〈 0.001） and weakly altered pRb expression [17 （80.5%） vs 58 （49.6%） P = 0.044] were associated with worse prognosis in these patients. However, multivariate analysis revealed that advanced tumor stage was the only independent poor prognostic factor （P 〈 0.001）. CONCLUSION： The mutation of Rb gene is frequent in gastric carcinoma. The expression of altered pRb inversely correlates with tumor invasion and is not an independent prognostic marker in gastric adenocarcinoma.