Soluble E-Cadherin Level in Gastric Cancer Patients

Introduction: Elevation of E-cadherin serum levels has been reported in several tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of soluble E-cadherin in gastric cancer patients. Methods: Concentrations of soluble E-cadherin from 124 gastric cancer patients and 45 controls were analyzed. Results: All patients were prospectively studied with a median follow-up of 38 months. Soluble E-cadherin levels were not statistically different between gastric cancer patients and control subjects (p 0.060). A low sensitivity and specificity were estimated by the ROC curve offsetting its utility as a diagnostic marker. Soluble E-cadherin levels did not correlate with survival and no significant elevation was noticed according to the different clinicopathological characteristics, if not in relation to the age (p 0.008) or the presence of systemic metastases (p 0.044). Conversely, statistically significant differences in 5-year survival rates were observed according to the tumour site (p 0.013), the type of surgery (p 0.001), pT (p 0.001), pN (p 0.001) and M (p 0.001) categories. The correlation between soluble E cadherin and age was confirmed by linear regression analysis both for gastric cancer patients (p 0.015) and control subjects (p 0.030). Discussion: Soluble E-cadherins did not seem useful in gastric cancer patients. The correlation with age claims for age matched comparisons.