OBJECTIVETo study the relationship between hRad17 mRNA expression and clinicopathologic factors and lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer, and to assess the significance of predicting the extent of lymph node metastasis and prognosis.

METHODShRad17 mRNA expression was examined in matched primary lesions, normal gastric mucosa and lymph node metastatic lesions among 52 gastric cancer patients by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and silver stain with the relation between hRad17 mRNA expression and clinicopathologic factors analyzed. At the same time, hRad17 mRNA expressions in 5 gastric benign lesions and SGC7901 gastric carcinoma cell lines were also examined.

RESULTSThe primary tumor samples (88.4% positive) showed a significantly higher level of hRad17 expression compared with matched normal tissue (76.9% positive) (P = 0.014), so did the lymph node metastatic samples (94.2% positive) (P = 0.001). The hRad17 mRNA expression showed a low level in benign lesions, but very high in SGC7901 cell line. The hRad17 mRNA expression showed a higher level in patients with the number of lymph node metastasis above 15 than below 15 (P = 0.02), so did the diffused growth than the mass-like growth (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONThe method of PAGE and silver stain can improve the sensitivity of RT-PCR. The degree of lymph node metastasis and invasiveness of carcinoma cells are more serious in cases with hRad17 mRNA overexpression, and extensive lymph node dissection should be carried out for these patients. Examination of hRad17 expression by RT-PCR before surgery is indicated to arrive at an optimum treatment scheme and to estimate the prognosis.