Expression of thymidylate synthase and thymidine phosphorylase in recurrence and survival rates of advanced gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: The immunohistochemical expression of thymidylate synthase (TS) and thymidine phosphorylase (TP) was examined in a comparative study of the recurrence rates and prognoses of patients with advanced gastric cancer at the same stage.METHODS: We examined the resected specimens of 67 patients with stage IIIB gastric cancer (pT3, pN2, M0) under 70 years of age who had undergone curative gastrectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluoropyrimidines. Paraffin sections of the resected specimens were stained with human anti-TS polyclonal and anti-TP monoclonal antibodies by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) method.