Clinical Significance of EREG Gene Expression in Gastric Cancer Tissue After Curative Surgery

Abstract

Background/aim: Epiregulin (EREG) is a ligand of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and promotes tumour progression mainly by stimulating the EGF pathway. We investigated the clinical significance of EREG mRNA expression in cancer tissues from patients with gastric cancer (GC) in pathological (p) Stage II/III who have undergone curative surgery.

Patients and methods: Expression of EREG mRNA was measured in cancer tissues obtained from 253 patients with pStage II/III GC who underwent curative surgery. Patients were divided into groups based on high or low expression of EREG mRNA. We examined the relationship between EREG mRNA expression levels and clinicopathological features and survival.

Results: Clinicopathological features did not vary between the high and low EREG mRNA expression groups. Overall survival was significantly lower in the high-expression group compared to that in the low-expression group (5-year survival probability: 55.0% vs. 73.0%; p=0.005). Multivariate analysis showed EREG mRNA expression to be an independent predictor of poor survival (hazard ratio=1.794; 95% confidence interval=1.186-2.712; p=0.006).

Conclusion: Expression of EREG mRNA in cancer tissue from patients with pStage II/III GC may be a useful prognostic marker after curative surgery.

Keywords: EREG; epiregulin; gastric cancer.