Expression of APC, β-catenin and E-cadherin in Tunisian patients with gastric adenocarcinoma: clinical significance

Aberrant activation of the Wnt signalling pathway is a key feature of many cancers. beta-Catenin, adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and E-cadherin are major players in this pathway. The aim of this study is to examine the expression of beta-catenin, APC and E-cadherin in tumour tissues of 80 Tunisian patients with gastric carcinoma and to determine the methylation status of the APC promoter in tumour tissues. Associations between protein expression and clinico-pathological parameters, including prognosis, were performed. Positive expression of beta-catenin, APC and E-cadherin was observed in 77.5, 68.7 and 60 % of cases, respectively. Tumours lacking membranous expression of beta-catenin had greater extent of lymph node metastasis, poor differentiation and advanced T-stage. The expression of E-cadherin correlated with poor differentiation (P = 0.05) and beta-catenin expression (P = 0.004). With regards to prognosis, the overall survival time was significantly prolonged for patients showing normal beta-catenin expression (exclusively or predominantly membranous staining) alone or combined with positive APC expression (P log rank = 0.008 and 0.003, respectively). The methylated pattern of APC promoter 1A was detected in 43.8 % of cases and correlated with T-stage (P = 0.046) and distant metastasis (P = 0.037). No correlation was found between the methylated profile of APC promoter 1A and the expression of APC protein in tumour tissues. Our findings suggest that deregulation of the Wnt pathway via abnormal expression of beta-catenin and E-cadherin occurred frequently in gastric carcinoma and correlated with worse clinical behaviour.