The Clinicopathologic Importance of Serum Lactic Dehydrogenase in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Background. To explore possible correlation between serum lactate dehydrogenase (SLDH) levels and gastric cancer. Materials and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed 365 patients with gastric cancer. The correlation of SLDH levels with clinicopathologic features and survival rate was studied. Results. SLDH levels were closely associated with the pathological (p) T stage (P = 0.011), metastasis (P = 0.012), pTNM stage (P = 0.001), and recurrence (P = 0.012). Moreover, we found a significant SLDH level difference among Borrmann type (P = 0.027), pT stage (P = 0.004), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.027), metastasis (P < 0.001), pTNM stage (P = 0.006), and recurrence (P = 0.002). In addition, we detected a significant SLDH level difference between alive and dead subgroups (P = 0.001). In addition, both univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed that high SLDH levels were independent prognostic factor. For the subgroup with normal LDH (median point of 157.0 U/L), we detected that the subset with SLDH levels ≥157 U/L (158–245 U/L) showed poorer OS (P = 0.005) and DFS (P = 0.01) than that of ≤157 subgroup. Conclusions. Our results suggest that high SLDH level could be an independent poor prognostic biomarker. Gastric cancer patients with relative high SLDH level (158–245 U/L) were prone to develop a shorter OS and DFS.