CCL7 and CCL21 overexpression in gastric cancer is associated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis

Table 1 Association of chemokine ligand 7, chemokine ligand 8 and chemokine ligand 21 expression with the clinicopathologic parameters

Factors	Cases	CCL-7 expression				CCL-8 expression				CCL-21 expression
		Higher	Equal	Lower	P value	Higher	Equal	Lower	P value	Higher	Equal	Lower	P value
		n = 82	n = 69	n = 43		n = 58	n = 64	n = 72		n = 87	n = 63	n = 44
Age (yr)
≤ 60	83	31	31	21	0.449	17	28	38	0.026	34	24	25	0.101
> 60	111	51	38	22		41	36	34		53	39	19
Gender
Male	114	52	40	22	0.412	36	40	38	0.429	47	45	22	0.041
Female	80	30	29	21		22	24	34		40	18	22
Tumor location
Upper	22	10	6	6	0.025	4	6	12	0.004	8	9	5	0.026
Middle	40	10	17	13		10	6	24		13	11	16
Lower	124	58	46	20		42	48	34		60	43	21
Whole	8	4	0	4		2	4	2		6	0	2
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 3	95	29	36	30	0.001	24	28	43	0.068	34	35	26	0.043
> 3	99	53	33	13		34	36	29		53	28	18
Differentiation
Well	18	6	8	4	0.177	5	6	7	0.422	7	7	4	0.130
Moderate	55	27	22	6		17	23	15		30	18	7
Poor	52	25	15	12		19	13	20		27	12	13
Signet ring cell	69	24	24	21		17	22	30		23	26	20
Depth of wall invasion
T1	47	12	19	16	0.001	8	15	24	0.070	9	18	20	< 0.0001
T2	37	8	18	11		13	12	12		9	18	10
T3	101	58	29	14		35	31	35		64	24	13
T4	9	4	3	2		2	6	1		5	3	1
Lymph node metastasis
N0	88	30	36	22	0.020	21	29	38	0.488	28	33	27	0.003
N1	47	16	16	15		16	17	14		20	17	10
N2	23	13	7	3		7	6	10		13	5	5
N3	36	23	10	3		14	12	10		26	8	2
Vascular invasion
No	168	70	60	38	0.800	50	58	60	0.561	71	57	40	0.163
Yes	26	12	9	5		8	6	12		16	6	4
Lymphatic invasion
No	104	37	39	28	0.086	27	34	43	0.325	36	38	30	0.006
Yes	90	45	30	15		31	30	29		51	25	14
Desmoplastic reaction
None	28	6	14	8	0.006	5	6	17	0.071	7	9	12	< 0.0001
Mild	64	22	20	22		18	21	25		17	26	21
Moderate	75	43	25	7		23	30	22		44	24	7
Marked	27	11	10	6		12	7	8		19	4	43
TNM stage
I	64	16	27	21	0.008	14	20	30	0.427	13	26	25	< 0.0001
II	44	17	17	10		13	14	17		18	18	8
III	38	20	12	6		13	14	11		24	8	6
IV	48	29	13	6		18	16	14		32	11	5

CCL: Chemokine ligand; TNM: Tumor node metastasis.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of the clinicopathologic parameters influencing the disease-free survival of 194 gastric cancer patients undergoing gastrectomy

Factors	Cases	Mean survival (mo)	95% CI of mean	5-year survival (%)	P value
Age (yr)
≤ 60	83	57.33	50.22-64.44	60.2	0.516
> 60	111	53.34	46.93-59.76	56.1
Gender
Male	114	57.90	51.74-64.05	62.2	0.174
Female	80	51.09	43.61-58.56	51.7
Type of gastrectomy
Total	41	31.85	23.28-40.43	33.5	< 0.0001
Subtotal	153	60.21	55.14-65.48	64.5
Tumor location
Upper	22	26.01	15.81-36.21	27.3	< 0.0001
Middle	40	69.22	61.15-71.29	77.0
Lower	124	56.56	50.70-62.43	59.5
Diffuse	8	23.41	7.46-39.36	25.0
Margin
Negative	173	57.71	52.73-62.68	62.3	0.0001
Positive	21	27.41	17.26-37.56	12.6
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 3	95	70.94	65.97-75.92	80.7	< 0.0001
> 3	99	39.02	32.23-45.81	34.6
Differentiation
Well	18	65.58	59.43-71.73	94.4	< 0.0001
Moderate	55	43.11	35.16-51.06	54.4
Poor	52	37.91	30.28-45.54	33.6
Signet ring cell	69	62.16	54.89-69.43	67.9
Depth of invasion
T1	47	79.53	75.46-83.60	95.7	< 0.0001
T2	37	71.92	64.56-79.28	80.6
T3	101	40.04	33.53-46.54	35.4
T4	9	10.57	5.94-15.21	0.0
Lymph node metastasis
N0	88	73.64	69.17-78.11	83.8	< 0.0001
N1	47	57.67	47.75-67.59	64.9
N2	23	31.61	21.57-41.65	23.9
N3	36	15.39	10.83-19.95	0.0
Vascular invasion
No	168	60.36	55.48-65.23	65.4	< 0.0001
Yes	26	17.74	11.39-24.08	4.4
Lymphatic invasion
No	104	70.58	65.84-75.33	79.2	< 0.0001
Yes	90	36.48	29.43-43.53	32.1
Perineural invasion
No	109	67.57	62.27-72.88	76.3	< 0.0001
Yes	84	37.36	30.70-44.02	34.1
Desmoplastic reaction
None	28	67.55	56.87-78.24	78.6	< 0.0001
Mild	64	70.20	64.03-76.37	78.7
Moderate	75	41.99	34.35-49.62	38.8
Marked	27	36.67	24.49-48.85	36.7
TNM stage
I	64	78.86	75.66-82.07	92.1	< 0.0001
II	44	66.55	58.17-74.92	74.2
III	38	46.52	36.06-56.98	45.7
IV	48	14.71	10.94-18.48	0.0
CCL-7
Higher	82	45.62	37.97-53.28	43.6	0.002
Equal	69	60.09	52.62-67.57	64.7
Lower	43	63.28	54.24-72.32	71.8
CCL-8
Higher	58	51.05	42.41-59.70	50.0	0.269
Equal	64	51.89	43.39-60.39	57.4
Lower	72	59.97	52.60-67.34	64.6
CCL-21
Higher	87	44.96	37.83-52.10	45.8	0.001
Equal	63	56.60	48.30-64.90	59.5
Lower	44	70.58	63.24-77.93	79.2

CCL: Chemokine ligand; TNM: Tumor node metastasis.

Table 3 Cox’s proportional hazards analysis

Factors	Hazard ratio	95% CI	P value
		upper-lower
Depth of invasion
T2/T1	7.850	1.454-42.390	0.017
T3/T1	23.200	4.733-113.716	0.000
T4/T1	65.052	10.830-390.730	< 0.0001
Lymph node metastasis
N1/N0	1.856	0.865-3.982	0.112
N2/N0	3.520	1.597-7.758	0.002
N3/N0	7.227	3.349-15.596	< 0.0001
Desmoplastic reaction
Mild/none	3.663	1.272-10.638	0.016
Moderate/none	3.623	1.304-10.101	0.014
Marked/none	4.926	1.590-15.152	0.006
CCL-7			0.801
CCL-8			0.620
CCL-21			0.084

CCL: Chemokine ligand.