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Expression of c-erbB-2 protein in carcinoma tissue was examined in 56 patients suffered from gastric carcinoma, and the correlation between the expression of c-erbB-2 protein and clinico-pathological factors, DNA ploidy pattern was also examined. Positive expression of c-erbB-2 protein in carcinoma tissue was detected in 21/56 (37.5%) cases, and the positive rate (71.4%) in tissue of differentiated carcinoma (pap, tub1, tub2) was significantly higher than that in tissue of undifferentiated carcinoma (por, sig, muc) (28.6%). No good correlation between the expression of c-erbB-2 in tissue and other clinico-pathological factors, such as ly, v, n, tumor size, stage of the tumor, and the location of the tumor was observed. In DNA ploidy, 70.6% of cases was aneuploid pattern, and 29.4% of cases was diploid pattern in positive expression of c-erbB-2 protein in carcinoma tissue. These results suggest that expression of c-erbB-2 protein is involved in promoting DNA synthesis in initial step of differentiated gastric carcinoma. The concentration of c-erbB-2 in serum of positive expression of c-erbB-2 protein in tissue was significantly higher than that in serum of negative expression of c-erbB-2 protein in tissue. Good correlation between serum concentration of c-erbB-2 protein and clinical stage of the carcinoma was observed in positive expression of c-erbB-2 protein in carcinoma tissue. The concentration of c-erbB-2 protein in serum can be a sensitive indicator for guess the Stage of the gastric carcinoma that express c-erbB-2 protein in carcinoma tissue.