Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a potential prognostic factor in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma.

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death, and many researchers are focused on the discovery and use of different biomarkers in prognosis prediction. The use of Nrf2 as a prognostic marker in patients with gastric cancer remains controversial. In this study, we evaluated the expression of Nrf2 protein in gastric adenocarcinoma.

Patients And Methods: A total of 86 patients who underwent gastric resection and D2 lymph node dissection due to gastric adenocarcinoma were included. Clinicopathological characteristics, such as age, gender, gastrectomy type, pathologic T (pT) and N (pN) stages, tumor grade, tumor type per Lauren's classification, presence of lymphovascular invasion, and Nrf2 expression were evaluated.

Results: While pT, pN, and Nrf-2 expression were found to be negative prognostic predictors for overall survival in one-way analysis of variance, Nrf-2 expression was the only significant negative prognostic predictor in multivariance analysis. pT, pN, diffuse type, high tumor grade, and Nrf-2 expression significantly affected overall survival in Kaplan-Meier survival analyses (p = 0.02, p = 0.03, p < 0.01, p = 0.027, and p = 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Our findings support that Nrf2 is a prognostic marker in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. Anti-Nrf2 therapy options should be investigated to improve prognosis in gastric cancer patients.