Clinicopathological significance of cytoplasmic transducer of ErbB2. 1 expression in gastric cancer.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of transducer of ErbB2. 1 (TOB1) in gastric carcinoma and to clarify the association between TOB1 expression and the clinical significance of this expression in patients with gastric carcinoma. Western blot analysis was performed to confirm the expression of TOB1 in gastric cancer. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on a tissue microarray containing 90 pairs of primary gastric cancer and adjacent normal tissue samples. TOB1 expression was evaluated separately with cytoplasmic and nuclear staining. Western blot analysis revealed significantly lower expression levels of TOB1 in gastric cancer tissues than those in adjacent normal tissues in 91.7% of cases. This was confirmed by IHC, which revealed decreased cytoplasmic TOB1 expression in cancer tissues compared with those of normal tissue samples in 84.4% of cases. The IHC data also revealed low cytoplasmic expression of TOB1 in 67.8% of human gastric cancer samples. Nuclear TOB1 expression exhibited no significant association with specific pathological features. However, a significant association was identified between cytoplasmic expression levels of TOB1 and clinicopathological characteristics, including the depth of invasion (P=0.017), differentiation grade (P=0.034) and tumor-node-metastasis stage (P<0.000). In conclusion, cytoplasmic TOB1 expression was suggested to be significant in angiogenesis and cell differentiation in gastric cancer tissues and may be used as a potential prognostic marker.