Prognostic significance of preoperative and postoperative CK19 and CEA mRNA levels in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cardia cancer

Table 1 Correlation between the preoperative and postoperative cytokeratin 19 mRNA levels and the clinicopathological features of 129 patients with gastric cardia cancer n (%)

Clinicopathological feature	Cases	CK19 mRNA level (pre-)		χ2 test		CK19 mRNA level (post-)		χ2 test
		Low	High	χ2	P value	Low	High	χ2	P value
Gender				1.484	0.223			1.663	0.197
Male	102	47 (46.1)	55 (53.9)			50 (49.0)	52 (51.0)
Female	27	16 (59.3)	11 (40.7)			17 (63.0)	10 (37.0)
Age (yr)				0.411	0.521			0.052	0.820
≤ 60	59	27 (45.8)	32 (54.2)			30 (50.8)	29 (49.2)
> 60	70	36 (51.4)	34 (48.6)			37 (52.9)	33 (47.1)
Tumor size (cm)				6.928	0.008			3.250	0.071
≤ 4	75	44 (58.7)	31 (41.3)			44 (58.7)	31 (41.3)
> 4	54	19 (35.2)	35 (64.8)			23 (42.6)	31 (57.4)
Histological grade				0.474	0.491			0.030	0.861
Well/moderately differentiated	99	50 (50.5)	49 (49.5)			51 (51.5)	48 (48.5)
Poorly differentiated/undifferentiated	30	13 (43.3)	17 (6.7)			16 (53.3)	14 (46.7)
Depth of tumor invasion				3.088	0.079			3.015	0.082
T1-T2	34	21 (61.8)	13 (38.2)			22 (64.7)	12 (35.3)
T3-T4	95	42 (44.2)	53 (55.8)			45 (47.4)	50 (52.6)
Lymph node status				4.528	0.033			3.913	0.048
Negative	78	44 (56.4)	34 (43.6)			46 (59.0)	32 (41.0)
Positive	51	19 (37.3)	32 (62.7)			21 (41.2)	30 (58.8)
TNM stage				8.861	0.012			2.848	0.241
I	11	9 (81.8)	2 (18.2)			7 (63.6)	4 (36.4)
II	75	39 (52.0)	36 (48.0)			42 (56.0)	33 (44.0)
III	43	15 (34.9)	28 (65.1)			18 (41.9)	25 (58.1)

CK19: Cytokeratin 19.

Table 2 Correlation between the preoperative and postoperative carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA levels and clinicopathological features in 129 patients with gastric cardia cancer n (%)

Clinicopathological feature	Cases	CEA mRNA level (pre-)		χ2 test		CEA mRNA level (post-)		χ2 test
		Low	High	χ2	P value	Low	High	χ2	P value
Gender				1.891	0.169			1.327	0.249
Male	102	38 (37.3)	64 (62.7)			44 (43.1)	58 (56.9)
Female	27	14 (51.9)	13 (48.1)			15 (55.6)	12 (44.4)
Age (yr)				0.413	0.521			1.121	0.290
≤ 60	59	22 (37.3)	37 (62.7)			24 (40.7)	35 (59.3)
> 60	70	30 (42.9)	40 (57.1)			35 (50.0)	35 (50.0)
Tumor size (cm)				0.078	0.780			5.757	0.016
≤ 4	75	31 (41.3)	44 (58.7)			41 (54.7)	34 (45.3)
> 4	54	21 (38.9)	33 (61.1)			18 (33.3)	36 (66.7)
Histological grade				3.024	0.082			2.423	0.12
Well/moderately differentiated	99	44 (44.4)	55 (55.6)			49 (49.5)	50 (50.5)
Poorly differentiated/undifferentiated	30	8 (26.7)	22 (73.3)			10 (33.3)	20 (66.7)
Depth of tumor invasion				4.653	0.031			0.966	0.326
T1-T2	34	19 (55.9)	15 (44.1)			18 (52.9)	16 (47.1)
T3-T4	95	33 (34.7)	62 (65.3)			41 (43.2)	54 (56.8)
Lymph node status				9.871	0.002			7.012	0.008
Negative	78	40 (51.3)	38 (48.7)			43 (55.1)	35 (44.9)
Positive	51	12 (23.5)	39 (76.5)			16 (31.4)	35 (68.6)
TNM stage				6.063	0.048			7.379	0.025
I	11	6 (54.5)	5 (45.5)			9 (81.8)	2 (18.2)
II	75	35 (46.7)	40 (53.3)			34 (45.3)	41 (54.7)
III	43	11 (25.6)	32 (74.4)			16 (37.2)	27 (62.8)

CK19: Cytokeratin 19; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis.

Table 3 Univariate and multivariate analyses of the clinicopathological variables for overall survival in 129 patients with gastric cardia cancer

Clinicopathological feature	Univariate analysis		Multivariate analysis
	HR (95%CI)	P value	HR (95%CI)	P value
Gender	1.377 (0.797-2.377)	0.245
Age (yr)	0.812 (0.529-1.247)	0.336
Tumor size(cm)	1.688 (1.097-2.596)	0.015	1.305 (0.816-2.089)	0.267
Histological grade	1.277 (1.008-1.619)	0.039	1.104 (0.860-1.418)	0.436
Depth of tumor invasion	1.985 (1.162-3.393)	0.010	1.191 (0.660-2.151)	0.562
Lymph node status	2.894 (1.864-4.492)	0.000	1.848 (1.109-3.079)	0.018
Pre-CK19 mRNA	1.932 (1.247-2.992)	0.002	1.625 (1.035-2.553)	0.035
Post-CK19 mRNA	1.431 (0.932-2.197)	0.096
Pre-CEA mRNA	2.337 (1.443-3.784)	0.000	1.918 (1.162-3.166)	0.011
Post-CEA mRNA	1.609 (1.039-2.492)	0.030	1.213 (0.753-1.955)	0.427

CK19: Cytokeratin 19; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; HR: Hazard ratio.