Overexpression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in gastric cancer and its correlation with overall survival of the patients

BACKGROUND: Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is an adhesion molecule which is expressed on the epithelial cells and primarily identified as a tumor marker for carcinoma. In this study, the expression of EpCAM in precancerous and cancerous gastric lesions was investigated and then, the association of EpCAM expression with the overall survival of patient suffering from gastric carcinoma was evaluated. METHODS: 12 gastric carcinoma, 3 dysplasia, and 8 intestinal metaplasia (IM) subjects were taken from the department of pathology of Tohid Hospital, Sanandaj, Iran. The diagnosis was made by the expert pathologist. Then, the subjects were stained for EpCAM by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and analyzed by the pathologist. RESULTS: The data showed that EpCAM was expressed in all of the precancerous and cancerous samples. However, 76.4% of carcinoma cells were positive for EpCAM while it was 62.5% and 51.3% for dysplasia and IM, respectively. Importantly, it was observed that the expression of EpCAM on gastric cancer was negatively correlated with the overall survival of the patients. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, it was demonstrated in this study that EpCAM is expressed in gastric carcinoma and its expression is negatively correlated with the overall survival of the patients with gastric cancer.