A common molecular signature of intestinal-type gastric carcinoma indicates processes related to gastric carcinogenesis

Abstract

Gastric carcinoma (GC) is one of the most aggressive cancers and the second leading cause of cancer death in the world. According to the Lauren classification, this adenocarcinoma is divided into two subtypes, intestinal and diffuse, which differ in their clinical, epidemiological and molecular features. Several studies have attempted to delineate the molecular signature of gastric cancer to develop new and non-invasive screening tests that improve diagnosis and lead to new treatment strategies. However, a consensus signature has not yet been identified for each condition. Thus, this work aimed to analyze the gene expression profile of Brazilian intestinal-type GC tissues using microarrays and compare the results to those of non-tumor tissue samples. Moreover, we compared our intestinal-type gastric carcinoma profile with those obtained from populations worldwide to assess their similarity. The results identified a molecular signature for intestinal-type GC and revealed that 38 genes differentially expressed in Brazilian intestinal-type gastric carcinoma samples can successfully distinguish gastric tumors from non-tumor tissue in the global population. These differentially expressed genes participate in biological processes important to cell homeostasis. Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier analysis suggested that 7 of these genes could individually be able to predict overall survival in intestinal-type gastric cancer patients.