CORRELATION BETWEEN SIALYL TN ANTIGEN AND LYMPHATIC METASTASIS IN PATIENTS WITH BORRMANN TYPE-IV GASTRIC-CARCINOMA

The expression of sialyl Tn (STn) antigen in 180 patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinomas was examined immunohistochemically. The rate of positive STn staining was 32% (57/180) for the primary tumours, and this positive staining correlated well with tumour extension, lymph node metastasis (P<0.05) and peritoneal dissemination (P<0.01). One-third (5/15) of patients with positive STn-staining cancer cells had a high level of serum STn. Lesions with positive STn staining were related to a lower survival rate for the patients (P<0.05). Proliferative activity of the tumour, as measured by proliferating nuclear antigen (PCNA) labelling percentage and argyrophilic nucleolar organiser region (AgNOR) count, was significantly higher (41.5+/-13.0%, 3.78+/-0.98) in the STn-positive group than in the STn-negative group (34.2+/-13.2%, 3.48+/-0.85) (P<0.01, P<0.05 respectively). Estimating STn antigen may be useful for predicting the likelihood of lymph node metastasis or peritoneal dissemination and the clinical prognosis for patients with Borrmann type IV gastric carcinoma.