OncoTargets and Therapy (Sep 2022)

PTEN Expression Was Significantly Associated with PD-L1 Score but Not with EBV Infection in Gastric Cancer

  • Cao D,
  • Su T,
  • Wu Y,
  • Jia Z,
  • Fu Y,
  • Sun Y,
  • Jin M,
  • Wang Y,
  • Yi J,
  • Cui Y,
  • Zhang Y,
  • Lv H,
  • Qu L,
  • Jiang J,
  • Cao X

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1011 – 1020

Abstract

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Donghui Cao,1,* Tongrong Su,2,* Yanhua Wu,1 Zhifang Jia,1 Yingli Fu,1 Yuanlin Sun,2 Meishan Jin,3 Yueqi Wang,1 Jiaxin Yi,1 Yingnan Cui,2 Yuzheng Zhang,1 Haiyong Lv,1 Limei Qu,3 Jing Jiang,1 Xueyuan Cao2 1Division of Clinical Epidemiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastric and Colorectal Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 3Division of Pathology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xueyuan Cao, Department of Gastric and Colorectal Surgery, General Surgery Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Gastric cancer (GC) remains a prevalent aggressive tumor with high morbidity and mortality globally. The identification of GC subtypes based on molecular features improved the prediction of prognosis and the selection of targeted therapies. PTEN is a characteristic tumor suppressor, while its association with different GC subtypes was unknown.Patients and Methods: The cohort consisted of 248 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer who were hospitalized and received radical gastrectomy. In addition, PTEN gene expression matrix of STAD was retrieved from TCGA. The mRNA and protein levels of PTEN and PD-L1 were detected using qRT-PCR and IHC staining. Multivariate logistic regression and Kaplan–Meier analysis were used to examine the relationship between PTEN expression and clinical characteristics.Results: In our study, PTEN was downregulated in gastric tumors both in mRNA and protein levels. Its inactivation was closely linked to higher histological grade (P = 0.005), neural invasion (P = 0.012), depth of invasion (P = 0.021), lymph metastasis (P = 0.026), and TNM stage (P = 0.001) of GC in the present study. Moreover, according to the molecular subtypes, high PTEN expression was related to high TPS score of PD-L1 positively (P = 0.010) but was not associated with MSI and EBV infection. Further, TCGA data validated that PTEN was indeed correlated with histological grade and invasion depth and positively related to PD-L1 expression (R = 0.29, adjusted P < 0.001).Conclusion: The above results suggested that PTEN expression was a useful marker in gastric carcinogenesis and progression and in the selection of immunotherapy-based treatments for GC patients.Keywords: gastric cancer, PTEN, molecular subtype, PD-L1, biomarker

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