OCT-1 is over-expressed in intestinal metaplasia and intestinal gastric carcinomas and binds to, but does not transactivate, CDX2 in gastric cells.

Intestinal metaplasia (IM) is a preneoplastic lesion of the stomach in which there is transdifferentiation of the gastric mucosa to an intestinal phenotype. The caudal-related homeobox gene CDX2 encodes an intestine-specific transcription factor crucial for the regulation of proliferation and differentiation of intestinal cells. In addition, CDX2 is involved in the induction of IM in the stomach.