Clinical significance of putative markers of cancer stem cells in gastric cancer: A retrospective cohort study

// Xiao-Long Chen 1, 2, * , Xin-Zu Chen 1, 2, * , Yi-Gao Wang 1, 2, * , Du He 3 , Zheng-Hao Lu 1, 2 , Kai Liu 1, 2 , Wei-Han Zhang 1, 2 , Wei Wang 1, 2 , Chang-Chun Li 1, 2 , Lian Xue 1, 2 , Lin-Yong Zhao 1, 2 , Kun Yang 1, 2 , Jian-Ping Liu 3 , Zong-Guang Zhou 1, 4 , Jian-Kun Hu 1, 2 , Xian-Ming Mo 5 1 Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China 2 Laboratory of Gastric Cancer, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China 3 Department of Pathology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China 4 Institute of Digestive Surgery, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China 5 Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy/Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jian-Kun Hu, email: hujkwch@126.com Keywords: gastric cancer, cancer stem cells, markers, prognosis, nomogram Received: December 22, 2015 Accepted: August 08, 2016 Published: August 19, 2016 ABSTRACT Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought as the source of tumor maintaining and many CSCs markers have been identified. Regarding the heterogeneity in gastric cancer (GC), TNM stage is not enough to accurately predict the prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of CSCs markers (Lgr5, Oct4, CD133, EpCAM, CD54 and Sox2) and establish a new model based on these markers to accurately predict prognosis of GC. We retrospectively enrolled 377 GC tissues from January 2006 to October 2012 to perform immunohistochemistry (IHC), and 93 pairs of GC tissues and corresponding adjacent normal gastric tissues to perform quantitative PCR (qPCR) from December 2011 to October 2012. The clinicopathological and follow-up characteristics were collected. In IHC, Oct4, CD133 and EpCAM were independently related to tumor progression, while Sox2 were associated with well or moderate differentiation (all p