• Yong-hua Zhuge, Hou-quan Tao, and Yuan-yu Wang.
• Department of Surgery, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China. zgyh1966@sina.com
• Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2011 Oct 25; 91 (39): 2765-8.

ObjectiveTo explore the clinical significance of sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) in the invasion, metastasis and prognosis of gastric cancer.MethodsImmunohistochemistry was employed to analyze the expression of SPHK1 in 206 clinicopathologically characterized gastric cancer cases from January 2001 to December 2005 at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital.ResultsSPHK1 protein was detected in 3 (7.5%) of 40 human non-tumor mucosa. All samples expressed the protein at a low level. SPHK1 protein was detected in 181 (87.9%) of 206 human gastric cancer cases. An elevated expression of SPHK1 protein was detected in 126 (61.2%) tumors. And SPHK1 protein was up-regulated in gastric cancer lesions compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues (P = 0.001). The expression of SPHK1 was correlated with the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and TNM stage (P = 0.039, 0.003, 0.020, 0.003). In stages I-II and III, the 5-year survival rate of the patients with a high expression of SPHK1 was significantly lower than those with a low expression (53.6% (15/28) vs 68.6% (24/35), 7.8% (6/77) vs 30.8% (12/39), P = 0.009, 0.006). In stage IV, the expression of SPHK1 was not correlated with the 5-year survival rate (P > 0.05). Further multivariate analysis suggested that lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage and the up-regulation of SPHK1 were independent prognostic indicators for gastric cancer.ConclusionThe expression of SPHK1 in gastric cancer is significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and a poor prognosis. SPHK1 may become a useful marker of predicting tumor progression and prognosis.

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