[Clinical significance of carriage of rare variants of connexin-26 genetic polymorphism in gastric cancer].

The authors present first results of investigations of the connexin-26 gene in DNA obtained from peripheral blood of 55 patients operated on for gastric cancer. Gastric cancer patients were found to have carriage of the Cx 26 gene that was reliably associated with the invasive ability of the tumor. Change of the connexin-26 gene in gastric cancer is evidence of an important role of intercellular gap junctions in the arising and development of gastric cancer.