RTN4/Nogo is an independent prognostic marker for gastric cancer: preliminary results.

OBJECTIVE : Gastric cancer is the fourth most common malignant cancer and is the second leading cause of cancer death world - wide. We evaluated the association of the im - munohistochemical RTN4 expression with clini - copathological variables and patient outcome, and to evaluate its prognostic value. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Histological sam - ples from 95 primary gastric carcinoma patients were retrospectively studied with monoclonal antibody to RTN4. RESULTS: Tumors with high RTN4 expression were found in 57.9% of patients. High RTN4 were associated with advanced stages ( p = 0.0377) and different histology ( p = 0.0030). In the overall population (median follow-up 42 months), pa - tients with high RTN4 had shorter survival time than those with low RTN4 expression ( p = 0.0119). In Cox multivariate analysis, high RTN4 (p = 0.0160) is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of gastric cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that RTN4 may contribute to the malignant progression of gastric cancer and serve as a novel prognostic indicator for gastric cancer patients .