Serum Soluble Vascular Adhesion Protein-1 Is a Valuable Prognostic Marker in Gastric Cancer

Background: Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) regulates leukocyte tissue infiltration. Elevated serum soluble VAP-1 (sVAP-1) levels occur in certain diseases having an inflammatory component. We previously showed in colorectal cancer that sVAP-1 expression is significantly higher relative to controls, and this decreased expression is associated with poor prognosis and lymph node and liver metastasis. However, sVAP-1 expression has not been described for gastric cancer. This study determines the relationship between preoperative serum sVAP-1 levels and clinicopathological features and prognosis in gastric cancer. Methods: Preoperative serum was collected from 107 gastric cancer patients and 33 normal controls. sVAP-1 levels were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The mean sVAP-1 level for cancer patients was significantly higher relative to controls, and decreased with disease progression. Tumor size, serosal invasion, lymph node metastasis, peritoneal dissemination, and TNM classification was significantly correlated with sVAP-1 level. sVAP-1 is also an independent predictive marker for lymph node metastasis. Patients having low sVAP-1 levels had significantly poorer prognosis relative to patients having elevated sVAP-1 in all or stages I-III gastric cancer patients, respectively. Conclusions: Low sVAP-1 levels are associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer. Determining sVAP-1 levels may be valuable for predicting prognosis and lymph node metastasis. J. Surg. Oncol. 2011;103:695-699. (C) 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.