Abstract
The β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) is highly expressed in various human neoplasms and has been considered a novel therapeutic target of cancer treatment. However, the clinicopathological significance of β2-AR expression in patients with gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore β2-AR expression and its prognostic significance. A total of 331 patients with surgically resected GC were evaluated. Tumor sections were stained immunohistochemically for β2-AR. And, we confirmed β2-AR expression in the GC cell lines by Western blot. β2-AR was highly expressed in 30.5 % of GC patients. Expression was significantly associated with age, T factor, tumor differentiation, histology of non-signet cells, lymphatic permeation, and vascular invasion. And, all the GC cell lines expressed β2-AR. On univariate analysis, age, disease stage, T factor, N factor, lymphatic permeation, vascular invasion, and β2-AR expression were significantly associated with overall survival. Although the multivariate analysis did not indicate that β2-AR expression was independently prognostic of survival, high-level β2-AR expression was associated with significantly poorer survival of GC patients with well or moderately differentiated tumors. β2-AR expression was a significant predictor of tumor aggressiveness in, and poorer survival of, patients with GC.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Ms. Yuka Matsui for her technical assistance during manuscript submission. And, we thank Ms. Tuya Bai and Ms. Hailin Bao for their technical assistance during Western blotting. We deeply appreciate the help given by Prof. Masahiko Nishiyama of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Oncology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, who critically reviewed the manuscript.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (Gunma University Hospital) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions.
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Takahashi, K., Kaira, K., Shimizu, A. et al. Clinical significance of β2-adrenergic receptor expression in patients with surgically resected gastric adenocarcinoma. Tumor Biol. 37, 13885–13892 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5139-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5139-2