Prognostic significance of vasohibin-1 and vasohibin-2 immunohistochemical expression in gastric cancer

Purpose: It was recently identified that the vasohibin family may regulate angiogenesis through suppression by the vasohibin-1 gene and promotion by the vasohibin-2 gene. We assessed vasohibin expression in gastric cancer patients and its effect on their prognosis. Methods: We evaluated vasohibin immunohistochemical expression in 210 patients with gastric cancer, who underwent radical surgery. The patients were divided first into a vasohibin-1-positive group and a vasohibin-1-negative group, and then into groups with high or low vasohibin-2 expression, to allow us to investigate the clinicopathological factors of prognosis retrospectively. Results: There were 139 patients in the vasohibin-1-positive group and 71 patients in the vasohibin-1-negative group, among which there were and 108 with high vasohibin-2 expression and 102 with low vasohibin-2 expression. Vasohibin-1 was associated with Ly (P = 0.003) and pT (P = 0.037), whereas vasohibin-2 was associated with Ly (P < 0.001), V (P < 0.001) and pStage (P < 0.001). Overall, cancer-specific and relapse-free survival rates were lower in the vasohibin-1-positive (P = 0.034, P < 0.001, P = 0.002, respectively) and high vasohibin-2 expression (P = 0.004, P = 0.003, P < 0.001, respectively) groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that vasohibin-1 expression was associated with cancer-specific (P = 0.014, hazard ratio [HR] 4.454) and relapse-free (P = 0.035, HR 2.557) survival and vasohibin-2 expression tended to influence relapse-free survival (P = 0.051, HR 2.061). Grouping patients by vasohibin expression status combinations showed correlation among their expressions (P = 0.005). Overall, cancer-specific and relapse-free survival rates were lowest in the vasohibin-1-positive and high vasohibin-2 expression group. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that vasohibin-1 and vasohibin-2 could be novel biomarkers for predicting gastric cancer prognosis.