PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

The clinicopathologic significance of Tks5 expression of peritoneal mesothelial cells in gastric cancer patients.

  • Atsushi Sugimoto,
  • Tomohisa Okuno,
  • Gen Tsujio,
  • Tomohiro Sera,
  • Yurie Yamamoto,
  • Koji Maruo,
  • Shuhei Kushiyama,
  • Sadaaki Nishimura,
  • Kenji Kuroda,
  • Shingo Togano,
  • Yuichiro Miki,
  • Mami Yoshii,
  • Tatsuro Tamura,
  • Takahiro Toyokawa,
  • Hiroaki Tanaka,
  • Kazuya Muguruma,
  • Masaichi Ohira,
  • Masakazu Yashiro

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253702
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 7
p. e0253702

Abstract

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BackgroundGastric cancer (GC) patients frequently develop peritoneal metastasis. Recently, it has been reported that peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) activated by GC cells acquire a migratory capacity and promote GC cell invasion. The invasiveness of PMCs reportedly depends on the activity of Tks5, an adaptor protein required for invadopodia formation. However, the relationship between clinicopathologic features and Tks5 expression in PMCs has been poorly documented. In this study, we evaluated the clinicopathologic significance of the Tks5 expression of PMCs in GC patients.Materials and methodsA total of 110 GC patients who underwent gastrectomy were enrolled in this study. Tks5 expressions in PMCs from the greater omentum, lesser omentum and retroperitoneum were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. We analyzed the correlation between Tks5 expressions in PMCs and the patients' clinicopathologic features.ResultsTks5 expression was found in 71 (64.5%) of the 110 patients, while 39 (35.5%) were Tks5-negative. Tks5 positivity was significantly (p = 0.038) associated with a greater tumor depth (i.e., T3/4 compared with T1/T2). Peritoneal recurrence was found in 12 of 98 cases within 3 years of surgery. The 3-year peritoneal recurrence-free survival (PRFS) rate in Tks5-positive cases was significantly poorer than that in Tks5-negative cases (80.1% vs 97.4%, p = 0.024). Multivariate analysis revealed that Tks5 positivity and lymph node metastasis were independent factors for PRFS.ConclusionTks5 is frequently expressed in PMCs in advanced-stage gastric cancer. Tks5 might be a useful predictor for peritoneal recurrence in GC patients.