Background & objective: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) is correlated to the genesis, progression, invasion, metastasis, and prognosis of some malignancies. This study was to evaluate the expression of HIF-1alpha in gastric cancer, and explore its correlation to clinical features of gastric cancer.
Methods: The expression of HIF-1alpha in 96 specimens of gastric cancer was detected by SP immunohistochemistry. The correlations of HIF-1alpha to clinicopathologic features and prognosis of gastric cancer were analyzed with SPSS10.0 software.
Results: Of the 96 specimens, 77 (80.2%) were HIF-1alpha-positive: 7 were grade (+), 29 were grade (++), 27 were grade (+++), and 14 were grade (++++). The positive rate of HIF-1alpha was significantly lower in stage I-II patients than in stage III-IV patients (66.7% vs. 87.3%, P=0.016), significantly lower in stage T1-T2 patients than in stage T3-T4 patients (57.9% vs. 88.0%, P=0.007), and slightly lower in the patients without distant metastasis than in the patients with distant metastasis (75.9% vs. 100%, P=0.055). The 5-year overall survival rate was significantly lower in HIF-1alpha-positive patients than in HIF-1alpha-negative patients (31.2% vs. 57.9%, P=0.027). However, HIF-1alpha was not an independent prognostic factor of gastric cancer in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions: The expression of HIF-1alpha is correlated to patients' survival, tumor stage, invasion depth, and distant metastasis of gastric cancer, and may be considered as a reference criterion in evaluating the progression, metastasis, and prognosis of gastric cancer.