Background & objective: Lysyl oxidase(LO), one of newly discovered candidate of tumor suppressor genes, was reported that its expression was closely associated with recurrence and metastasis of breast and prostate carcinomas. However, till now there was no report evaluating the relationship between this gene expression and relapse or metastasis of upper digestive tract carcinomas. This study was designed to explore the relationship between the expression of LO gene and recurrence as well as metastasis of malignant upper digestive tract tumors such as esophageal, cardiac, and gastric cancers.
Method: LO expression in esophageal, cardiac, and gastric cancer was determined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Results: RT-PCR amplification demonstrated that the expression rate was 42.1% (16/38), 42.9% 9(9/21), and 28.0% (7/25) in esophageal, cardiac, and gastric cancers, respectively. Furthermore, the expression rate of LO mRNA was lower in the tumor tissues with lymph nodes metastasis. And this was also observed in tumor with deep muscular layer infiltration(P < 0.05). In contrast, the reduced expression of the LO gene had no relation to histological classification, invasion pattern, tumor size, and number of metastasis lymph nodes(P > 0.05).
Conclusions: These findings suggest that LO gene may play an important role in metastasis of esophageal, cardiac, and gastric carcinomas.