Abstract:
Background: Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of
cancer-related mortality and the fourth most common cancer
globally. This study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness
of miR-21 as a less invasive screening and prognostic marker
in Gastric cancer patients from Sri Lanka. Further the H. pylori
status was investigated.
Methods: Twenty patients who were diagnosed as having
gastric cancer were enrolled along with the age sex matched
healthy controls in this study. Specimens and clinicopathologic
features of the patients were collected at 2 teaching hospitals.
Circulating miR-21 levels in serum were quantified by real time
PCR using miR-16 as a normalization control. The serum of
each patient with gastric cancer was tested for the presence of
lgG antibody to H. pylori.
Results: The age of the patients ranged between 45 to 79
years, with a median of 59 years. The peak incidence of tumors
was seen in the fifth decade of life. Majority of the patients 60%
(12/20) presented with non-cardia gastric cancer and 70%
(14/20) of patients had intestinal type according to Lauren’s
classification. The median miR-21 expression of gastric cancer
group was found to be higher (0.79) than the healthy controls
(0.586), although not significant. Proportion of H. pylori
infection was high in gastric cancer patients (85%). No
significant difference in expression levels of miRNA-21 was
observed in gastric cancer patients who were positive or
negative serologically for H. pylori.
