Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of Ki-67, caspase-3 and p53 expression in gastric carcinomas

The understanding of proliferative and apoptotic changes has aided the improvement of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of gastric cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of Ki-67, caspase-3 and p53 in gastric cancer. The expression levels of Ki-67, caspase-3 and p53 were evaluated on tissue microarrays of gastric carcinomas specimens by immunohistochemistry and compared with the clinicopathological parameters and survival time of the patients. It was observed that the elder or male patients with gastric cancer showed p53 overexpression compared with the younger or female patients, respectively (P<0.05). The expression of Ki-67 and p53 was positively associated with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging (P<0.05). There was higher caspase-3 and p53 expression in the intestinal-type compared with the diffuse-type of carcinomas (P<0.05). There was a positive correlation among Ki-67, caspase-3 and p53 expression in gastric cancer (P<0.05). A Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that there was positive correlation between caspase-3 expression and the adverse prognosis of the patients (P>0.05). Cox’s proportional hazards model indicated that the patient age, gender, depth of invasion, lymphatic invasion, lymph node metastasis, TNM staging, Lauren’s classification and caspase-3 expression were independent prognostic factors for gastric carcinomas (P<0.05). The data indicated that the expression of Ki-67, caspase-3 and p53 may be involved in the progression or differentiation of gastric carcinoma. This expression may be employed as an indicator of the pathobiological behavior and prognosis of gastric carcinomas.