Affiliations: Institute of Pathology, Hannover Medical School,
Hannover, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Matthias Christgen, Institute of
Pathology, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. Tel.: +49 511 532
4501; Fax: +49 511 532 4488, E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The cell surface glycoprotein KAI1/CD82 suppresses tumor growth and
metastasis in animal models. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic
relevance of KAI1/CD82 protein expression in human gastric cancer. Primary
gastric carcinomas (n=271) with a mean clinical follow-up time of 48 months
were immunostained using the monoclonal anti{-}KAI1/CD82 antibody G2. Staining
was evaluated as negative versus positive for statistical analysis. KAI1/CD82
immunoreactivity was absent in 103/271 (38%) cases. There was a trend towards
KAI1/CD82 negativity in poorly differentiated cases (p=0.0679). Moreover,
KAI1/CD82-negative carcinomas were associated with a higher pT status
(p=0.0222), metastatic lymph node involvement (p=0.0018) and a higher clinical
tumor stage (p=0.0050). The median overall survival times of KAI1/CD82-negative
and KAI1/CD82-positive gastric carcinomas were 20 and 37 months, respectively
(p=0.2305). These results are in line with the proposed function of KAI1/CD82
as a suppressor of tumor growth and metastasis. However, these data suggest
that KAI1/CD82, as detected by immunohistochemistry, is of limited value as a
prognostic marker for gastric cancer in routine histological workup.
