ABSTRACT
AIM: To analyze the impact of the GNAS1 T393C polymorphism on prognosis and histopathology of gastric cancer. METHODS: Genomic DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues of 122 patients with primary gastric carcinoma and from the blood of 820 healthy white individuals. Allelic discrimination was performed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Genotyping was correlated with histopathologic parameters and with overall survival according to the Kaplan-Meier approach and with multivariate analysis by multiple stepwise regression. RESULTS: Thirty-nine (32%) patients displayed a CC genotype, 57 (46.7%) a CT genotype and 26 (21.3%) a TT genotype. The frequency of the C allele (fC) in the patient group was 0.55, which was not significantly different from that of healthy blood donors. The distribution was compatible with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Analysis of clinicopathological parameters did not show any significant correlation of the T393C genotype with gender (P = 0.50), differentiation (P = 0.29), pT-category (P = 0.19), pN-category (P = 0.30), pM-category (P = 0.25), R-category (P = 0.95), the classifications according to WHO (P = 0.34), Laurén (P = 0.16), Goseki (P = 1.00) and Ming (P = 0.74). Dichotomization between C+ (CC+CT) and C-genotypes (TT), however, revealed significantly more advanced tumor stages (P = 0.023) and lower survival rates (P = 0.043) for C allele carriers. CONCLUSION: The present study provides strong evidence to suggest that the GNAS1 T393C allele carrier status influences tumor progression and survival in gastric cancer with higher tumor stages and a worse outcome for C allele carriers.